The Komen Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center is the only biobank in the world that collects healthy breast tissue to be used as normal controls in breast cancer research. However, the challenge is to collect tissue samples that could provide appropriate representation of subpopulations.
This team implemented several approaches to see if they would be helpful in overcoming barriers to tissue collection among Hispanic/Latina and Asian women, ages 18 and older who could speak and understand English.
The KTB connected and disseminated information about the study via affinity groups, email invitations and posting fliers throughout campus.
A Novel Qualitative Approach for Identifying Effective Communication for Recruitment of Minority Women to a Breast Cancer Prevention Study
What did they find?
- Knowledge is essential to motivation; there was a universal need for detailed information on tissue donation
- The importance of addressing the role of cultural influences on tissue donation
- There were differences in outlook and perceived connection to breast cancer among Hispanic/Latina and Asian women
Why is this study important?
- Enabled researchers to gain insights to better engage with Hispanic/Latina and Asian women
- Interactive, participatory focus groups are an important improvement upon the traditional focus group and fostered a deeper exploration of the perspectives of Hispanic/Latina and Asian women
- The novel methods used could prove to be a means of eliciting further information about motivations not only for the Hispanic/Latina and Asian women’s participation in tissue donation, but also in other types of preventive and clinical breast cancer research
Full citation
Ridley-Merriweather KE, Head KJ, Younker SM, Evans MD, Moore CM, Lindsey DS, Wu CY, Wiehe SE. A novel qualitative approach for identifying effective communication for recruitment of minority women to a breast cancer prevention study. Contemp Clin Trials Commun. 2022 Mar 18;27:100910. doi: 10.1016/j.conctc.2022.100910. PMID: 35369402; PMCID: PMC8968002.
