Underrepresentation of Hispanics and Other Minorities in Clinical Trials: Recruiters’ Perspectives
Abstract
Clinical trials and research studies often fail to recruit participants from the minorities, hampering the generalizability of results. In order to mitigate this problem, the present study investigated how race/ethnicity affects the process of recruiting people from racial and ethnic minority groups, by conducting 11 focus groups with professional recruiters. Several themes emerged, such as how to adapt to potential participants' language competency and literacy levels, the importance to engage in culturally appropriate verbal and non-verbal communication, and to establish a sense of homophily between recruiters and patients. In addition, recruiters pointed out possible solutions to accommodate socioeconomic concerns, to adapt to contextual factors-including immigration status-and ultimately to respond to potential participants' mistrust of medical research. These findings are discussed, and future recommendations are provided.
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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 [54]
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“…e t a r y ) a r e p o t e n t i a l r e c r u i t i n g f a c i l i t a t o r s t h a t s h o u l d b e u s e d t o e m p h a s i s e t h a t p a r t i c i p a n t s ’ t i m e a n d o p i n i o n s a r e s i g n i fi c a n t [ 11 , 33 , 37 , 47 , 54 , 65 ] S t u d y c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s –”
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- Authors
- Occa, A., Morgan, S. E., & Potter, J. E.
- Affiliations
- University of Miami (US)
- Corresponding author
- Occa, Aurora
- Venue
- Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
- Published
- 2017-04-27
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 322-332
- ISSN
- 2196-8837 (ISSN-L)
- 2197-3792
- OpenAlex
- W2607917317
- Cited by
- 78
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 2.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Ethics in Clinical Research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Race, Genetics, and Society
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Cultural Competency in Health Care
- Keywords
- clinical trial recruitment, racial and ethnic minorities, Hispanic population, underrepresentation in research, language barriers, literacy, culturally appropriate communication, homophily, socioeconomic barriers, immigration status, health disparities
- MeSH terms
- Literacy, Black or African American, Clinical Trials as Topic, Communication, Communication Barriers, Ethnicity, Female, Hispanic or Latino, Humans, Male, Minority Groups, Research Personnel, Socioeconomic Factors, Focus Groups, Patient Selection, Trust, Biomedical Research, Cultural Competency
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