Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2016 Apr;38(2):30.
doi: 10.1007/s11357-016-9892-3. Epub 2016 Feb 18.

Clinical research for older adults in rural areas: the MINDED study experience

Bertrand Fougère  1   2 , Mylène Aubertin-Leheudre  3   4 , Bruno Vellas  5   6   7 , Sandrine Andrieu  6 , Laurent Demougeot  5 , Céline Cluzan  5 , Matteo Cesari  5   6   7
Affiliations
Review

Clinical research for older adults in rural areas: the MINDED study experience

Bertrand Fougère et al. Age (Dordr). 2016 Apr.

Abstract

Due to the growing need to make clinical decisions based on valid and objective scientific evidence, the number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) has increased over the last three decades. Nevertheless, evidence-based medicine has still limited applicability in older adults, because they are often excluded from clinical trials. Evidence-based medicine is even more challenging in rural areas, as its remote environment provides additional barriers. Nevertheless, given the high prevalence of older adults living in rural settings, research in this type of environment has become crucial. This can only be accomplished by considering the multiple additional challenges of these regions. In this paper, we examine potential environmental, procedural, and participants' barriers to the management of a RCT in a rural area. Possible solutions and suggestions are provided based on our experience-from the Multidomain Intervention to preveNt Disability in ElDers (MINDED) project.

Keywords: MINDED; Older adult; Randomized controlled trial; Rural areas.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Compliance with ethical standards Funding The MINDED project is funded as a Chair of Excellence of the Agence Nationale de Recherche assigned to Dr. Cesari. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Conflict of interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

References

    1. Advani AS, Atkeson B, Brown CL, Peterson BL, Fish L, Johnson JL, et al. Barriers to the participation of African-American patients with cancer in clinical trials: a pilot study. Cancer. 2003;97(6):1499–1506. doi: 10.1002/cncr.11213. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cesari M, Demougeot L, Boccalon H, Guyonnet S, Van Kan G A, Vellas B, et al. A self-reported screening tool for detecting community-dwelling older persons with frailty syndrome in the absence of mobility disability: the FiND questionnaire. PloS One. 2014;9(7):e101745. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0101745. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cesari M, Demougeot L, Boccalon H, Guyonnet S, Vellas B, Andrieu S. The Multidomain Intervention to preveNt disability in ElDers (MINDED) project: rationale and study design of a pilot study. Contemp Clin Trials. 2014;38(1):145–154. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2014.04.006. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cohen GI. Clinical research by community oncologists. CA Cancer J Clin. 2003;53(2):73–81. doi: 10.3322/canjclin.53.2.73. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cutler SJ, Coward RT. Residence differences in the health status of elders*. J Rural Health. 1988;4(3):11–26. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-0361.1988.tb00175.x. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources