A pilot study of a culturally-appropriate, educational intervention to increase participation in cancer clinical trials among African Americans and Latinos

• Published in: Cancer causes & control Vol. 32; no. 9; pp. 953 - 963
• Main Authors: Cunningham-Erves, Jennifer, Mayo-Gamble, Tilicia L., Hull, Pamela C., Lu, Tao, Barajas, Claudia, McAfee, Caree R., Sanderson, Maureen, Canedo, Juan R., Beard, Katina, Wilkins, Consuelo H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-09-2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: African Americans; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cancer; Cancer Research; Clinical trials; Clinical Trials as Topic; Education; Epidemiology; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Hematology; Hispanic or Latino; Humans; Medical research; Minority & ethnic groups; Neoplasms - epidemiology; Neoplasms - therapy; Oncology; Original Paper; Participation; Pilot Projects; Polls & surveys; Public Health; Surveys and Questionnaires; Town halls; Clinical trials; African americans; Cancer disparities; Latinos; Pilot project; Education
• ISSN: 0957-5243; 1573-7225
• DOI: 10.1007/s10552-021-01449-7

Aim
Culturally-appropriate, educational programs are recommended to improve cancer clinical trial participation among African Americans and Latinos. This study investigated the effect of a culturally-appropriate, educational program on knowledge, trust in medical researchers, and intent for clinical trial participation among African Americans and Latinos in Middle Tennessee.
Method
Trained community health educators delivered a 30-min presentation with video testimonials to 198 participants in 13 town halls. A pre-post survey design was used to evaluate the intervention among 102 participants who completed both pre- and post-surveys one to two weeks after the session.
Results
Paired-sample
t
-test showed significant increases in unadjusted mean scores for knowledge (
p
 < 0.001), trust in medical researchers (
p
 < 0.001), and willingness to participate in clinical trials (
p
 = 0.003) after the town halls in the overall sample. After adjusting for gender and education, all three outcomes remained significant for the overall sample (knowledge:
p
 < 0.001; trust in medical researchers:
p
 < 0.001; willingness:
p
 = 0.001) and for African Americans (knowledge:
p
 < 0.001; trust in medical researchers:
p
 = 0.007; willingness:
p
 = 0.005). However, willingness to participate was no longer significant for Latinos (knowledge:
p
 < 0.001; trust in medical researchers:
p
 = 0.034; willingness:
p
 = 0.084).
Conclusions
The culturally-appropriate, educational program showed promising results for short-term, clinical trial outcomes. Further studies should examine efficacy to improve research participation outcomes.