Are racial and ethnic minorities less willing to participate in health research?

ABSTRACT:

Background

It is widely claimed that racial and ethnic minorities, especially in the US, are less willing than non-minority individuals to participate in health research. Yet, there is a paucity of empirical data to substantiate this claim.

Methods and findings

We performed a comprehensive literature search to identify all published health research studies that report consent rates by race or ethnicity. We found 20 health research studies that reported consent rates by race or ethnicity. These 20 studies reported the enrollment decisions of over 70,000 individuals for a broad range of research, from interviews to drug treatment to surgical trials. Eighteen of the twenty studies were single-site studies conducted exclusively in the US or multi-site studies where the majority

SUBMITTER: Wendler D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1298944 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature