Barriers and Strategies for Recruitment of Racial and Ethnic Minorities: Perspectives from Neurological Clinical Research Coordinators
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Introduction Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard within evidence-based research. Low participant accrual rates, especially of underrepresented groups (e.g., racial-ethnic minorities), may jeopardize clinical studies' viability and strength of findings. Research has begun to unweave clinical trial mechanics, including the roles of clinical research coordinators, to improve trial participation rates.Methods Two semi-structured focus groups were conducted with a purposive sample of 29 clinical research coordinators (CRCs) at consecutive international stroke conferences in 2013 and 2014 to gain in-depth understanding of coordinator-level barriers to racial-ethnic minority recruitment and retention into neurological trials. Coded transcripts were used to create themes to define concepts, identify associations, summarize findings, and posit explanations.Results Barriers related to translation, literacy, family composition, and severity of medical diagnosis were identified. Potential strategies included a focus on developing personal relationships with patients, community and patient education, centralized clinical trial administrative systems, and competency focused training and education for CRCs.Conclusion Patient level barriers to clinical trial recruitment are well documented. Less is known about barriers facing CRCs. Further identification of how and when barriers manifest and the effectiveness of strategies to improve CRCs recruitment efforts is warranted.
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Fourteen included studies reported on why certain patients may have been overlooked for clinical trial participation.
“Fourteen studies reported on why certain patients may have been overlooked for clinical trial participation [12, 17, 38, 42, 44, 45, 52–55, 59, 63, 66, 69].”
From Enablers and barriers of clinical trial participation in adult patients from minority ethnic groups: a systematic review (2025) · cites this paper as [44]
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“Fourteen studies reported on why certain patients may have been overlooked for clinical trial participation [12, 17, 38, 42, 44, 45, 52–55, 59, 63, 66, 69].”
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- Authors
- Haley, S. J., Southwick, L. E., Parikh, N. S., Rivera, J., Farrar-Edwards, D., & Boden-Albala, B.
- Affiliations
- City University of New York (US)
- New York University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Haley, Sean J.
- Venue
- Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
- Published
- 2017-02-07
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1225-1236
- ISSN
- 2196-8837 (ISSN-L)
- 2197-3792
- PMC
- PMC5547022
- OpenAlex
- W2587486298
- Cited by
- 73
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 3.59
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (U24#MD006961)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (U24#MD006961)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics in Clinical Research
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistical Methods in Clinical Trials
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Race, Genetics, and Society
- Keywords
- clinical trial recruitment, racial and ethnic minorities, clinical research coordinators, underrepresented groups, recruitment barriers, translation barriers, literacy, family structure, patient retention, community participation, coordinator training, stroke research
- MeSH terms
- Clinical Trials as Topic, Ethnicity, Female, Humans, Male, Minority Groups, Nervous System Diseases, Research Personnel, Focus Groups, Patient Selection, Racial Groups
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