ABSTRACT
This chapter examines a project at Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee that was highly successful in attracting and gaining compliance from women, and in particular, African-American women as medical research subjects. Specific psychological factors may mediate against recruitment, such as the demands of time required for participation, travel difficulties, and perception of lack of quality of life inherent in participation in clinical research. Individual behavioral issues were not predictive of recruitment and compliance rates, but access to care was predictive of recruitment and compliance among intravenous drug users (IDUs). Rates of HIV in the African-American community are linked to systemic racism that contributes to a tangled web of poor socioeconomic conditions, intravenous drug use, and heterosexual transmission of the virus to sexual partners of IDUs. Retention refers to the continued participation in a clinical trial once an eligible candidate has given informed consent. Little research has addressed the issue of retention in trials.
