Establishment of a predominantly African-American cohort for the study of Alzheimer's disease: the South Carolina Alzheimer's disease clinical core.
OBJECTIVE
The recruitment of culturally diverse subject populations into research studies, particularly African-Americans (AA), has been the focus of intense interest by many groups.


METHODS
In this paper, we present the methodology utilized to create a predominantly AA cohort for the longitudinal study of risk factors in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The underlying strategy was that of identifying geographically diverse clinical venues within South Carolina (SC) where large numbers of AA patients already come to seek medical care.


RESULTS
This strategy was successful, although recruitment rates for AA subjects (43.4%) still fell below those for white subjects (70.3%; p = 0.0025). Subject characteristics of AA subjects that chose to enroll were not substantially different from those that declined to participate. The demographic characteristics of this cohort were largely similar to those of the SC Alzheimer Disease Registry, a population-based database. The problems of standardization of subject recruitment and assessment across diverse clinical venues are also addressed.


CONCLUSIONS
The utilization of geographically diverse sites for research recruitment where minorities already receive medical care is one practical solution to the problem of minority participation in research. Multi-site recruitment to improve minority recruitment can be accomplished with acceptable standardization and inter-rater reliability.
Bachman
David L
DL
Department of Neurosciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, S.C. 29425, USA. bachmadl@musc.edu
Stuckey
Marilyn
M
Ebeling
Myla
M
Wagner
Mark T
MT
Evans
W James
WJ
Hirth
Victor
V
Walker
Aljoeson
A
Memon
Mohammed
M
Joglekar
Rajiv
R
Faison
Warachal
W
Mintzer
Jacobo E
JE
D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D018579:Patient Selection; D012042:Registries; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013022:South Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D044465:White People