How many times over the years has the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment been raised as a reason (cultural or otherwise) to explain African Americans' mistrust of the medical field and to launch a communications effort of some sort? Answer: often in my own experience. Well, a new study is out that may finally wake up some people. Study Debunks That Blacks Are Wary of Medical Research.
Given the chance to participate, minorities volunteer at least as often as whites do, according to the first study to measure response rates directly. And although minorities are indeed underrepresented in research, the reason appears to be that doctors and scientists reach out to them less.
"You have to stop blaming the victim here," said NIH bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel, who with Wendler led the new research, published in yesterday's online edition of the journal PLoS Medicine. "When you see it's about access -- not bringing enough minorities in -- that means the responsibility is on us, the researchers and research institutions."
Experts in minority medicine said they were gratified to see objective evidence supporting what they have long believed to be true.
The new data shift the burden of responsibility from research subjects to the researchers, Kington said, and suggest that efforts to improve minority participation through educational campaigns need to be rethought.
"If the main driver is not an attitude problem on the part of minorities, then doing interventions to change those attitudes of minorities is not going to solve the problem," Kington said.
So it's not about the message or communications.
Darn - it's that pesky reach (distribution) problem again!
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