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. 2024 Aug:156:104663.
doi: 10.1016/j.jbi.2024.104663. Epub 2024 Jun 4.

Promoting equity in clinical research: The role of social determinants of health

Betina Idnay  1 , Yilu Fang  1 , Edward Stanley  2 , Brenda Ruotolo  3 , Wendy K Chung  4 , Karen Marder  5 , Chunhua Weng  6
Affiliations

Promoting equity in clinical research: The role of social determinants of health

Betina Idnay et al. J Biomed Inform. 2024 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to investigate the association between social determinants of health (SDoH) and clinical research recruitment outcomes and recommends evidence-based strategies to enhance equity.

Materials and methods: Data were collected from the internal clinical study manager database, clinical data warehouse, and clinical research registry. Study characteristics (e.g., study phase) and sociodemographic information were extracted. Median neighborhood income, distance from the study location, and Area Deprivation Index (ADI) were calculated. Mixed effect generalized regression was used for clustering effects and false discovery rate adjustment for multiple testing. A stratified analysis was performed to examine the impact in distinct medical departments.

Results: The study sample consisted of 3,962 individuals, with a mean age of 61.5 years, 53.6 % male, 54.2 % White, and 49.1 % non-Hispanic or Latino. Study characteristics revealed a variety of protocols across different departments, with cardiology having the highest percentage of participants (46.4 %). Industry funding was the most common (74.5 %), and digital advertising and personal outreach were the main recruitment methods (58.9 % and 90.8 %).

Discussion: The analysis demonstrated significant associations between participant characteristics and research participation, including biological sex, age, ethnicity, and language. The stratified analysis revealed other significant associations for recruitment strategies. SDoH is crucial to clinical research recruitment, and this study presents evidence-based solutions for equity and inclusivity. Researchers can tailor recruitment strategies to overcome barriers and increase participant diversity by identifying participant characteristics and research involvement status.

Conclusion: The findings highlight the relevance of clinical research inequities and equitable representation of historically underrepresented populations. We need to improve recruitment strategies to promote diversity and inclusivity in research.

Keywords: Clinical research; Informatics; Recruitment; Social determinants of health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Sample Selection in CUIMC Study Manager and Rascal.
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