Effectiveness of a Community Research Registry to Recruit Minority and Underserved Adults for Health Research

BACKGROUND: Recruiting minorities and underserved populations into population-based studies is a long standing challenge. This study examined the feasibility of recruiting adults from a community research registry. METHODS: Ethnically diverse, bilingual staff attended health fairs, inviting adults to join a registry. We examined rates of successful contact, scheduling, and participation for studies that used the registry. RESULTS: Five studies queried 6,886 research registry members (48% Hispanic and 38% black) and attempted to contact 2,301 potentially eligible participants; eligibility criteria varied across studies. We successfully contacted 1,130 members, 51.9% were scheduled to participate and of those, 60.8% completed their study appointment. Non-Hispanic whites were less likely than Hispanics to be interested, but among those scheduling an appointment, participation did not differ by race/ethnicity. CONCLUSION: Community research registries are a feasible and efficient method for recruiting minority and underserved adults and may address disparities in access to and participation in health research.