Willingness of Older Adults From Culturally Diverse Populations to Participate in COVID-19 Related Treatment Trials and Associated Factors

Ellen Leslie Brown; Amy Paul-Ward; Donna Felber Neff; Fern J Webb; Edgar Ramos Vieira; Trudy Gaillard

doi:10.1177/23337214231179826

Willingness of Older Adults From Culturally Diverse Populations to Participate in COVID-19 Related Treatment Trials and Associated Factors

Gerontol Geriatr Med. 2023 Jun 9:9:23337214231179826. doi: 10.1177/23337214231179826. eCollection 2023 Jan-Dec.

Authors

Ellen Leslie Brown¹, Amy Paul-Ward¹, Donna Felber Neff², Fern J Webb³, Edgar Ramos Vieira¹, Trudy Gaillard¹

Affiliations

¹ Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA.
² University of Central Florida, Miami, FL, USA.
³ Center for Health Equity & Engagement Research, Jacksonville, FL, USA.

Abstract

This survey study aimed to assess the willingness of culturally diverse older adults to participate in COVID-19 research. The majority of the 276 participants were women (81%, n = 223) and Black/African American (62%, n = 172) or White Hispanic (20%, n = 56). A key finding from the survey was less than 1 of 10 respondents would be likely to participate in COVID-19 related research if given the opportunity. There were no differences observed by gender, race or ethnicity. Implications of these findings are considered. These study findings indicate continued effort and better messaging strategies are required to increase awareness that COVID-19 related research needs to include culturally diverse older adults to ensure vaccines and treatments are efficacious in different populations.

Keywords: health care disparity; health services research; methodology; survey.