Browsing by Author "Ridley-Merriweather, Katherine Ellen"

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    Learning from Black/African American Participants: Applying the Integrated Behavioral Model to Assess Recruitment Strategies for a Glaucoma Genetic Study
    (Taylor & Francis, 2022) Kikut, Ava; Sanyal, Mohima; Vaughn, Marquis; Ridley-Merriweather, Katherine Ellen; Head, Katharine; Salowe, Rebecca; Lomax-Reese, Sara; Lewis, Monica; Ross, Ahmara G.; Cui, Qi N.; Addis, Victoria; Sankar, Prithvi S.; Miller-Ellis, Eydie; O’Brien, Joan M.; Communication Studies, School of Liberal Arts
    The underrepresentation of African American (AA) participants in medical research perpetuates racial health disparities in the United States. Open-ended phone interviews were conducted with 50 AA adults from Philadelphia who had previously participated in a genetic study of glaucoma that included complimentary ophthalmic screenings. Recruitment for the genetic study was done in partnership with a Black-owned radio station. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts, guided by the integrated behavior model (IBM), identified self-reported motivations for participating in this care-focused and community-promoted research program. Findings revealed that decisions to enroll were influenced by strong instrumental attitudes regarding learning more about personal health and contributing to future care options for others. Notable normative influences that factored into participants’ decisions to enroll in the study included hearing about the study from a respected community media outlet, friends, and family. About one-third of respondents discussed past and current racial discrimination in medical research as an important sociocultural frame within which they thought about participation, suggesting that experiential attitudes play a continuing role in AA’s decisions to enroll in medical research studies. Medical researchers seeking to recruit AA participants should collaborate with community partners, combine enrollment opportunities with access to health services, and emphasize the potential for new research to mitigate racial inequalities.
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    Relationship of Trust and Research Engagement
    (Indiana Medical Student Program for Research and Scholarship (IMPRS), 2023) Bruns, Rebecca; Vinaixa, Conor; Haywood, Antwione; Ridley-Merriweather, Katherine Ellen; Sotto-Santiago, Sylk
    Background/Objective: Lack of trust is a major barrier to research participation and can lead to disparities in health outcomes. Scales that measure trust in healthcare organizations and biomedical research have never been synthesized into a single tool, nor has such a scale been used to assess attitudes regarding trust in a more focused community. This project aims to measure trust in medical researchers and healthcare institutions in Indiana. Methods: A survey was created by combining previously validated trust scales (Shea et al., Mainous et al., and Hall et al.) along with questions about demographic backgrounds. Cognitive interviewing was conducted in three focus groups to finalize survey questions. The questionnaire was sent to participants recruited via email from the All IN for Health registry, a statewide database of volunteers interested in research participation. Results: At the time of analysis, 481 participants had completed the survey. About half of respondents were age 60+, and almost three times more women participated than men. The majority had bachelor's degrees or higher (72.5%). About half of participants agree that healthcare organizations cover up their mistakes. Half disagreed that patients get the same medical treatment regardless of race/ethnicity. Almost one in five respondents (17.4%) believe that medical researchers conduct experiments on people without their knowledge. Conclusion: Preliminary results suggest additional efforts may be needed to foster trust in healthcare research and organizations. Results may not be generalizable to the entire population due to differences in gender, race/ethnicity, and level of education across initial respondents. One limitation is that recruitment using the All IN for Health registry may have produced biased results. Further studies are needed to understand factors that may influence trust. Scientific/Clinical/Policy Implications: Results may influence public outreach and research recruitment to gain trust from Indiana residents and enhance participation in medical research.
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    Testing the Effect of Culturally Targeted, Normative Messaging on Black Women's Intentions to Participate in a Breast Cancer Clinical Trial
    (2023-07) Ridley-Merriweather, Katherine Ellen; Head, Katharine J.; Ashburn-Nardo, Leslie; Brann, Maria; Côté, Michele L.; Longtin, Krista
    Despite increasing disease incidence and remarkably high mortality rates, Black women are underrepresented in breast cancer (BC) clinical trials (CTs), likely limiting the generalizability of BC research findings to Black patients. Evidence demonstrates that the BC research community could exert more effort to ensure the recruitment of Black women into CTs. Although Black and white women have similar BC incidence rates, Black women are 40% more likely than all other races and ethnicities to die of the disease. Clear disparities exist even after controlling for socioeconomic inequalities. Black participation in CTs has been declining, which is particularly unfortunate given the increasing health problem of a lack of Black representation in medical research. Successfully swelling the percentages of Black women who participate in BC research is important and likely reliant on increasing group members’ motivations to surmount existing historical, cultural, and social barriers. Guided by normative and cultural theoretical frameworks, this study examined the effects of culturally informed messaging on Black women’s intention to participate in a CT focused on BC prevention. Six hundred thirty-five Black women aged 18 and over were recruited through Qualtrics to participate in an online, posttest only, control-group design message testing study using random assignment to condition (the control or one of four injunctive-, descriptive-, and/or legacy norm-focused messages). They answered survey questions designed to measure the messages’ effects on the women’s intention to participate in the CT. The study employed univariate and multivariate logistic regression and yielded statistically nonsignificant results; none of the four hypotheses were supported. However, the findings trended overall toward having higher probability of intending to perform the behavior (overall intention M = 3.35). All conditions had means higher than three (out of a five-point scale). A practical implication is that message content is affected by the medium through which it is delivered. Theoretical implications include the importance of overlaying cultural factors onto normative theories. Given that previous successful recruitment methods to this CT for this population were grounded in research practices involving face-to-face, interpersonal interactions, future research should consider employing a multi-level approach in testing these messages.