Barriers and Facilitators to Minority Research Participation: A Comparison across African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Although the literature on barriers and facilitators to racial and ethnic minority participation in clinical research has burgeoned over the past decade, most of this scholarship has focused on African Americans. There are fewer studies that include a spectrum of multicultural populations and a comparative understanding of the factors that enhance or deter their likely participation and retention in clinical research. This is a very important gap in knowledge, given the growing racial and ethnic diversity in the U.S. population.A systematic review was conducted to answer the question: What are the experienced or perceived barriers and enablers to participating in health research for U.S. ethnic minority populations, notably African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Titles, abstracts, and manuscripts were selected from a literature search conducted on PubMed and Web of Science between January 2000 and August 2011.Out of 163 articles retrieved, 44 articles were included. Similarities and differences in perceptions and experiences across the four groups are presented in tables listing unique and shared barriers and enablers. While there were different degrees of mistrust regarding research across all groups, they also expressed interest in learning about research and a willingness to participate for altruistic reasons embedded in cultural and community priorities.The comparison of findings across the four racial/ethnic groups demonstrates the importance of contextualizing participant recruitment and retention strategies among these populations by attending to community and cultural congruence in the research design.