Engaging Minoritized Communities in Clinical Trials Through Social Media: Recommendations from Community-Based Participatory Research

The current study aims to understand what Black and Latino community members know about clinical trials and develop effective messaging to generate interest, improve access, and encourage participation among minoritized populations through social media. Employing community-based participatory research, we formed a community research advisory team and conducted focus group interviews with Black and Latino community members about elements of social media messages that might reduce hesitancy about and increase engagement in clinical trials. From the interview transcripts, we extracted seven key themes: transparency, familiarity, altruism, adaptability, flexibility, recognition, and safety. We suggest leveraging these themes as strategies to craft targeted recruitment messages addressing barriers to participation in clinical trials among Black and Latino community members.