Examining inclusive research practices to engage communities: a qualitative inquiry

Area of Science:

• Clinical Research
• Health Equity
• Community Engagement

Background:

• Persistent challenges in clinical research include suboptimal reach due to language barriers, mistrust, and cultural misalignment.
• A tailored approach is essential for recruiting and retaining diverse communities, moving beyond generalizability or single-community focus.

Purpose of the Study:

• To illustrate the depth and breadth of community-engaged research methods used to increase recruitment and retention of diverse communities.
• To identify common themes and best practices for inclusive research.

Main Methods:

• Conducted semi-structured interviews with 48 principal investigators and study staff from US research institutions.
• Employed a rapid qualitative analysis approach for thematic organization of interview data.

Main Results:

• Six key themes emerged: research team as advocate, partnership characteristics, best practices, financial costs, sustainability, and system challenges.
• Best practices included incentives, bilingual support, and multi-pronged recruitment strategies.
• Participants highlighted the importance of cultural practices, community voices, and data for policy.

Conclusions:

• Tailoring research approaches to community preferences and fostering collaborative partnerships enhance representation.
• The research environment needs multi-level strategies to overcome challenges in community-engaged research.