Rural populations have been historically underrepresented and excluded from clinical research. However, there are limited data to guide decisions on inclusion of rural populations at the study level.
A paper for Clinical and Translational Science co-authored by members of the Duke CTSI Integrating Special Populations (ISP) team describes the inclusion of rural populations within the research enterprise using Clinical Research Management System demographic information at a large academic medical center in the Southeast. This cross-sectional study used participant demographic information for all protocols entered into the Clinical Research Management System through March 25, 2021.
Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the representation of rural and non-rural participants and demographic breakdown by age, gender, race, and ethnicity for the entire enterprise and at the state level. Researchers also compared the Area Deprivation Index between urban and rural participants. There were significant differences in race, gender, and age between rural and non-rural participants and in the Area Deprivation Index between rural and urban participants.
The article was initiated by the ISP working group and led by Devon Noonan, PhD, MPH, co-director for the Duke National Clinician Scholars Program at CTSI and former faculty lead for ISP.