Given the troubled history of Black Americans in previous clinical studies, such as the Tuskegee syphilis study, it is not surprising that Black Americans may feel a sense of lingering mistrust in clinical trials and medical research.
Despite the increased risk and aggressive nature of prostate cancer in Black patients compared to white patients, a distrust of healthcare providers can be a significant barrier for Black patients in getting screened, diagnosed, and treated for prostate cancer.
Educating Black patients about prostate cancer screening and clinical trials may help improve access to care, but is there a link between racial representation in online content and trust in the content? This study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology for the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting, sought to find out.
This randomized clinical study of 2,904 adults of or over age 40 investigated a possible link between the content speaker and trust in the content. The online content was presented by a Black physician, a Black patient, a white physician, or a white patient. The Likert scale was used to assess how much the viewer trusted the content. Almost 60% of the participants were Black, and around 40% were white.
Ultimately, it was found that Black participants were 1.5 times more likely to trust a Black presenter over a white presenter. There was no significant difference in trust for white participants who watched a Black or white presenter. For all participants, trust was highest when a physician rather than a patient presented the content.
In closing, patient education delivered by healthcare providers is key to improving awareness of medical information on prostate cancer. Along the same lines, diversity in the health professions is necessary to cultivate the trust of Black patients in healthcare providers and clinical trials [1].
Source:
[1] Loeb, S., Ravenell, J., Gomez, S. L., Borno, H., Siu, K., Nolasco, T. S., Byrne, N., Wilson, G., Griffith, D., Crocker, R., Sherman, R., & Langford, A. (2022, June). Racial concordance and trust in health communications: a randomized trial of videos about prostate cancer [Poster discussion session]. 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL. https://meetings.asco.org/abstracts-presentations/210752
