Message Factors Affecting the Recruitment of Black Caribbean and African American Participants for Clinical Trials

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The need for effective and ethical recruitment of Black Caribbean and African American individuals for participation in research studies and clinical trials is urgent; without adequate representation, findings cannot be generalized to these populations. The factors affecting recruitment are complex, including many systems-based issues. However, communication issues have received relatively little attention. To advance knowledge of communication behaviors that impact recruitment of research participants from Black communities, we describe the findings from a study of 48 participants in 9 focus groups. Participants included 31 African American and Black Caribbean individuals who described their experiences being recruited for research studies and clinical trials as well as 17 (primarily Hispanic and African American) clinical research coordinators who described how message factors impacted recruitment and retention of Black Caribbean and African American participants. Using the lens of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), which describes the communication factors that help motivate the cognitive processing of information, we describe how the amount of information provided, the accessibility of information, and the complexity of information all impact study recruitment. Participants offered insights about the adequacy (and excess) of information provided, tensions related to deviation from consent form language when simplifying complex terminology, preemptively addressing common conspiracy theories during recruitment, the importance of using metaphors and analogies, and communicating complex information using multiple communication modalities.