Clinical trials of health interventions often lack racial and ethnic diversity among participants, even though past research suggests minority and health disparity groups have varying responses to these interventions. Because of this, research is largely extrapolated using data from White populations. Consequently, a growing proportion of Americans may not receive the full benefits of clinical and biomedical advances and may be exposed to treatments untested in their population. Trust in medical research and researchers is an important factor in promoting minority inclusion in clinical trials.

In an NIMHD-funded project, researchers tested an intervention to build trust among minority individuals, their health care providers, and medical researchers in four large, multi-site clinical trials. Results indicated that trust-based strategies improved minority enrollment in 3 of the 4 clinical trials.