Research attitudes through the COVID-19 pandemic

Identifying the factors that influence attitudes toward biomedical research is essential for improving public engagement and participation. The COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity to assess how a public health crisis shapes perceptions of clinical research. We investigated whether attitudes toward biomedical research differed across phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We analyzed data from 5,098 adults enrolled in the UC Irvine Consent-to-Contact (C2C) registry, an online voluntary recruitment registry in Southern California, between June 2016 and August 2025. Research attitudes were assessed with the validated 7-item Research Attitudes Questionnaire (RAQ) at enrollment and annually thereafter. Scores were analyzed continuously (7 -35) and dichotomously, with >28 defined a priori as high. COVID-19 periods were defined a priori as: P1 (before March 13, 2020-the U.S. national emergency declaration), P2 (March 13 to December 11, 2020-prior to COVID-19 vaccine approval), and P3 (after December 11, 2020-post-vaccine approval). Cross-sectional analyses included all participants; longitudinal analyses were limited to 1,388 participants who enrolled before March 2020 and had ≥3 assessments.

Our sample of 5,098 adults was predominantly non-Hispanic White (70.2%), female (65.7%), highly educated, and over age 50 (66.7%). Participants enrolling during P2 had 60% higher odds of a high RAQ score (>28) compared with P1 (aOR 1.60; 95% CI: 1.07, 2.40; p=0.022). Longitudinally, the mean within-subject RAQ score was significantly higher during P2 versus P1 (Est. 0.37; 95% CI: 0.08, 0.66; p=0.011), and the odds of a high RAQ score were 24% higher in P2 (aOR 1.24; 95% CI: 1.09, 1.39; p<0.001) compared to P1.

These findings suggest that awareness of urgent medical issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, may affect attitudes toward research.