Effectiveness of Media Strategies to Increase Enrollment and Diversity in the Women's Health Registry

Abstract

Low recruitment rates of women into clinical trials are attributed to logistical challenges such as raising awareness of trials, creating lay-friendly information about trial participation, and connecting willing participants with investigators. In response to these challenges, the University of Michigan Health System's National Center of Excellence in Women's Health and Center for Clinical Investigation and Therapeutics created the Women's Health Registry to enroll women into a searchable database that allows identification and prescreening of women interested in research participation. Institutional review board–approved investigators submit study details, including eligibility criteria, and the registry team generates contact information for prescreened women who have consented to be contacted by investigators. Although systems designed elsewhere assist investigators in identifying eligible patients for specific trials,1,2 the registry takes a broader approach by storing contact and health history information for women interested in being prescreened and contacted for participation in projects whenever they meet criteria. In a pilot of the database (June 2000–January 2001), 654 women completed a multipage questionnaire capturing demographic and personal health information. Word-of-mouth and on-site publicity was used to inform women of the project, in addition to a 2-week print and radio campaign in local communities (within 30 miles) that surround the University of Michigan. Predictably, the pilot campaign disproportionately enrolled participants who were White (92%), had higher education or advanced degrees (86%), and had health insurance (93%).