Racial and ethnic differences in willingness to participate in psychiatric genetic research

The National Institute of Mental Health's effort to rectify the underrepresentation of American Blacks in the genetic studies of psychiatric disorders has met with mixed success. This study was designed to understand some of the barriers to recruitment.

Men and women, who were of Black, White or Hispanic race/ethnicity, aged 18-79 years (N= 353), were recruited from clinical and community settings in New York City. Participants responded to a survey that was designed to measure willingness to participate and attitudes toward genetic research. Principal components analyses generated eight factors including perceived benefits, concerns about, and drawbacks of genetic research, and beliefs about genetic or environmental contributions to psychopathology. Analysis of variance assessed within-ethnic group differences on factor scores, as they related to willingness to participate in genetic research.

Ethnic groups did not differ significantly in stated willingness to participate in genetic research; more than 70% in each group were willing to participate. Among Blacks and Hispanics, mistrust and wariness, and stigma were significantly increased in those unwilling to participate; for Whites, perceived benefit to society and perceived importance for knowledge/education were associated with willingness to participate. For Blacks and Hispanics, youth (aged 18-29 years) and college education reduced, but did not eliminate the association between wariness and mistrust and willingness to participate.

Findings suggest that recruitment efforts aimed at increasing the representation of Blacks should be aware of the barriers among those who are less educated, and involve interactive community collaborations, to fully address the mistrust in this population.