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

Jennifer Cunningham-Erves, Tilicia L. Mayo-Gamble, Pamela C. Hull, Tao Lu, Claudia Barajas, Caree R. McAfee, Maureen Sanderson, Juan R. Canedo, Katina Beard, Consuelo H. Wilkins

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)953-963
Number of pages11
JournalCancer Causes and Control
Volume32
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grant Numbers P30 CA068485, P30 CA068485-23S5, U54 CA163072, U54 CA163069, U54 CA163066, UL1 RR024975 and UL1 TR000445.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Keywords

  • African americans
  • Cancer disparities
  • Clinical trials
  • Education
  • Latinos
  • Pilot project

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oncology
  • Cancer Research

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