Engaging the Latino Community for Recruitment into a Large Population Registry and Biorepository

The MURDOCK Study Community Registry and Biorepository (MURDOCK Registry) will recruit 50,000 volunteer participants (18 years or older) who consent to provide baseline clinical data, ongoing access to their electronic health records and biological specimens in addition to annual follow-up. Increasing Latino representation in the MURDOCK Registry will not only ensure representativeness of the study to the local Cabarrus County, NC community (9% Latino), but also provide this ethnic community with opportunities to participate in clinical trials, intervention studies, patient-centered research, and work intended to reduce health disparities.  

Efforts to enhance Latino enrollment in the MURDOCK Registry have included: (1) employing local, bilingual Latino staff who have established connections within the communities to be recruited; (2) translating all study materials into Spanish; (3) offering flexible appointment scheduling, home visits and study enrollment at workplaces, healthcare sites, schools, churches; (4) educating community organizations with a high prevalence of Latino representation/ involvement; (5) engaging a diverse network of enrollment locations, such as the health department, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and free clinics, with a high Latino patient population. Prior to initiation of these efforts, 2% of the MURDOCK Registry was Latino. Currently, of the 10,300 participants enrolled, 12% are Latino.

While these grassroots efforts have been highly successful in engaging and recruiting from within the Latino communities of the region, the remaining challenge is  to retain this Latino population in long-term follow-up so their valuable contribution to science can be fully realized.

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Learning Areas:

Diversity and culture
Epidemiology
Other professions or practice related to public health
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Describe the steps taken for educating, recruiting, empowering and enrolling a Latino population in a community-based health research study.

Keyword(s): Latinos, Community-Based Partnership & Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I was born in Ecuador and am very passionate about my Latino roots. I thrive when working with the under served population. I have worked for DTMI's MURDOCK Study since the very beginning, 2009. As a Clinical Trials Project Leader I oversee community outreach and recruitment efforts of the MURDOCK Study Community Registry and Biorepository in addition to other community engagement activities associated with this large resource.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4145.0: Community partnerships for the health of Latino communities