Testing the Impact of Appeals to Diversity and Inclusion in Pediatric Clinical Research Study Enrollment Videos: a Baseline Assessment Study

Improving diversity in research projects and national data repositories is critical to providing safe and effective care to marginalized groups. Unfortunately, certain groups such as African Americans are inadequately represented in much of the available data and in current clinical trials. Recently, investigators have begun employing new messaging approaches to increase diversity in clinical trial enrollment. These messages are typically designed to inform, with no appeal for specific groups to act, and no tailoring that takes into account specific groups. Very little is known about the potential impact of inclusion appeals--direct appeals to historically marginalized groups calling on their need to be included in research studies. Applying the science of appeals to recruitment messages may improve the effectiveness of educational videos and lead to greater participation in research. This pilot study proposes to empirically study whether an inclusion appeal increases decisions to enroll children in studies.