Latinas’ Perspectives on Donating Healthy Breast Tissue: Implications for Recruitment Methods and Messaging

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Breast Cancer is the most common cause of cancer death for Latinas in the United States; however, researchers do not use recruitment messaging focused on increasing Latina participation, a lapse clearly demonstrated by Latinos’ accounting for only 1.3% of cancer- related clinical trial participants. The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of Latinas’ decisions to participate in a preventative breast cancer clinical trial and to propose future recruitment methods based upon their responses.

METHODS: Twenty women (N= 20) who self-identified as Latina or Hispanic, were interviewed to learn more about their reasoning and motivations in deciding to donate their healthy breast tissue for medical research. Each transcribed interview was coded using thematic analysis through the framework of constructivist grounded theory.

RESULTS: Findings revealed three primary themes: (1) participants viewed bilingual recruitment materials and personnel on the research team as important motivators to participate, (2) participants viewed the knowledge of their under-representation in medical research AND the knowledge that their participation will help future Latinos as reasons to participate, and (3) negative feedback from family or friends regarding their research participation did not cause them to reconsider their decision to donate.

CONCLUSIONS: Understanding the motivations of Latinas who have participated in cancer clinical trials can allow researchers to create targeted recruitment messaging to increase the number of Latina participants. Increasing cancer clinical trial participation of Latinas may decrease health disparities for Latinas in the United States.