Abstract P1168: The Association Between Self-Perceived Risk of Heart Disease and Barriers and Motivators to Research Participation

Purpose: Prior studies have investigated how barriers and motivators (B&M) impact women’s participation in heart health-related research, but there is limited understanding of how women’s perceptions of their own heart health risk impact such B&M. This study aimed to investigate the association between self-perceived risk of heart disease and B&M to heart health-related research participation. We hypothesize that self-perceived risk of heart disease will be associated with encountering increased barriers or motivators to research participation on average. Methods: Data from the Barriers and Motivators to Research survey from the American Heart Association’s Millennial Women’s Health Study (MWHS) were used to conduct this analysis. B&M were measured using the established B&M research scale employed in prior health research. B&M were tallied among each participant and the number of total B&M were counted. We performed descriptive statistics and the association between B&M and perceived risk of heart disease was assessed by performing one-way ANOVA Kruskal-Wallis tests for nonparametric data. Results: A total of 200 women participated in the study. Of these, 39% were Black and 21% were Hispanic, with an average age of 44 (10.9). Sixty-five percent of women within the study population perceived themselves to be at risk of heart disease and 60% of the population reported that they did not experience barriers, instead reporting that they felt motivated to participate in research. We found that there was no significant difference in average total amount of barriers or motivators between any groups that perceived themselves to be at risk of heart disease ( = 8.5, = 4, p = 0.07, = 7.6, = 4, p = 0.11). Additionally, women who reported a single barrier to participation in research were more likely to report encountering at least 3 motivators to research participation. Conclusion: Women who perceived themselves to be at risk for heart disease reported strong motivation to participate in heart-related research. Although most women in our sample did not report encountering barriers to participation, those who did identified barriers such as difficulty finding time to participate and lack of interest in learning about the information research may provide about their health. Further research is necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the specific motivators and barriers experienced by women from minoritized backgrounds when invited to participate in heart research.