ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- At a time when the Hispanic population in the United States is growing at a rate faster than any other minority group, Hispanics still represent only a small portion of participants in clinical research studies. Researchers from the University of Michigan Health System and the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System set out to find the reasons for the lack of participation, and to find ways to encourage Hispanics to take part in studies that could help build an understanding of the ways diseases affect people of various races and ethnicities. They are presenting the results at the American Geriatrics Society's annual meeting.

They found that many Hispanic people would be more willing to participate if the researcher spoke Spanish, if they felt like the process would have a health benefit to them, if the research had a direct benefit to the Hispanic community and if they could do their part on weekends rather than weekdays.

The findings could help researchers recruit more Hispanic people, which is essential for finding information about the way diseases such as diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart disease affect them, the lead researcher says.

"These are diseases that are more prevalent among Hispanics, and minorities in general," says Joel Escobedo, who is presenting the poster at the AGS meeting. "We need to understand how these conditions affect Hispanics, how treatments work for them, and what areas we need to pay particular attention to with Hispanic patients."

"There are differences in how you treat different populations," says Carol Lee, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine, with a focus on geriatrics, at the U-M Medical School.

"Unless you have these populations participating in studies, you can't have a good understanding of how the diseases impact them," says Lee, Escobedo's mentor on the research, who also is affiliated with the Geriatric Research, Education a
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Contact: Katie Gazella
kgazella@umich.edu
734-764-2220
University of Michigan Health System
12-May-2005

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