Recruitment and Retention of African American Patients for Clinical Research: An Exploration of Response Rates in an Urban Psychiatric Hospital

The issues related to recruiting African American psychiatric inpatients are discussed in the context of a study on the influence of ethnicity on psychiatric diagnosis. Ethnically diverse psychiatric residents interviewed 960 Black and White inpatients in 2 urban psychiatric hospitals. Despite the obstacles cited in the literature about recruiting and retaining African Americans into research, 78 % of this sample were African American. In addition, interview completion and refusal rates did not differ by patient ethnicity. Results suggest that matching interviewer and patient ethnicity did not influence African Americans ' likelihood of participating in or of refusing an interview. This article summarizes a number of guidelines that others may find useful in conducting clinical research with African Americans, ranging from the formation of academic—public liaisons to interviewer training. This article is based on data collected by the African American Mental Health Research Center (AAMHRC), which is affiliated with the Program for Research on Black Americans, directed by James S. Jackson and located at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. This study would not have been possible without the support and guidance of the Detroit Psychiatric Institute (DPI) and the cooperation of Sinai Hospital. We thank all of the DPI and Sinai Hospital staf