Asian Americans are less willing than other racial groups to participate in health research

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: Background: Asian Americans constitute 5% of the U.S. population. Their willingness to participate in research is important to examine because it influences participation rates and the representativeness of study results. Methods: A total of 17,339 community members participated from six diverse Clinical and Translational Award (CTSA) sites. Community members were asked about their willingness to volunteer for eight different types of health research, their expectation of monetary compensation for research participation, their trust in research and researchers, their preferred language to receive health information, and their socio-demographic background. We examined Asian Americans’ willingness to participate in various types of health research studies and compared their perceptions with other racial/ethnic groups (i.e., Asian n = 485; African-American n = 9516; Hispanic/Latino n = 1889; Caucasian n = 4760; and other minority n = 689). Results: Compared to all other racial/ethnic groups, Asian Americans were less willing to participate in all eight types of health research. However, Asian Americans reported a lower amount of fair compensation for research participation than African-Americans and Hispanics/Latinos but were as likely to trust researchers as all other racial/ethnic groups. Conclusion: Asian Americans are less willing to participate in health research than other racial/ethnic groups, and this difference is not due to dissatisfaction with research compensation or lower trust in researchers. Lack of trust in research and language barriers should be addressed to improve representativeness and generalizability of all populations in research.

Source: Journal of Clinical and Translational Science

DOI: 10.1017/cts.2019.372

Authors: Yiyang Liu, Amy Elliott, Hal Strelnick, Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, Linda B. Cottler

Institutions: University of Florida Health, University of Florida, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, University of California, Davis

Language: English

Topic: Ethics in Clinical Research

Subfield: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,750

Funders: University of Florida, Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance, National Institutes of Health, National Center for Research Resources, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

OpenAlex ID: W2947873405