African Americans' participation in clinical research: importance, barriers, and solutions.
Ethical and scientifically sound research requires that any sample population represent the population as a whole. African-Americans suffer disproportionately from cancer, hypertension, and heart failure compared with whites, but they are commonly underrepresented in clinical trials of these diseases. Failure to include African-American subjects in clinical trials prevents generalizability of the results to this population. African-Americans are often underrepresented in clinical research for numerous historic, societal, educational, and economic reasons. Efforts to improve enrollment of African-American subjects requires recognition of the problem, planning, educational efforts, and investigator training. The incidence of heart disease and prostate cancer in African-Americans dictates that these patients be targeted for clinical trials of surgical research. The research team must appreciate the importance of community involvement and support in recruiting African-Americans participants. Additionally, the continued effort to recruit and train African-American investigators must be a priority.
Branson
Richard D
RD
Department of Surgery, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, 231 Albert B. Sabin Way, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0558, USA. richard.branson@uc.edu
Davis
Kenneth
K
Butler
Karyn L
KL
D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017677:Age Distribution; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000941:ethics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002985:Clinical Protocols / Q000145:classification; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000941:ethics* / Q000379:methods*; D015340:Epidemiologic Research Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018579:Patient Selection / Q000941:ethics*; D017678:Sex Distribution