Ethnic Minority Health Research Priorities – REPRESENT study

What is the project?

it is very important for different people to be part of health research. This ensures that it benefits everyone and represents the wider population of whom 14% are ethnic minorities. Therefore, we aim to identify the health and social care areas that are important to ethnic minority groups and how these communities view research practices.

People taking part in research are usually older, have higher levels of education but less likely to come from an ethnic minority background. This means that a lot of research studies are not very relevant for most people. Many reasons stop people from other ethnic backgrounds joining in research. This can include not knowing about the study or the process, not being taken care of in the way they like, or the research may not interest them.

The CEHR having been working closely with NIHR ARC-EM researchers and community members to understand what types of health research are most important to them. Through a questionnaire and a series of focus groups, preferences related to study design such as recruitment methods, recruitment location, participant contact, feedback of research findings have all been explored.

What is the aim?

The aim is to develop a clear list of research topics prioritised by people from ethnic minority backgrounds which will be used to inform future research practices. Recommendations for how studies should be conducted will be made following survey opinions and discussions with members of different ethnic minority backgrounds. The evidence from this study will be used to update our Increasing Participation of Ethnic Minorities in Health and Social Care Research toolkit.

Who is involved?

NIHR ARC-EM

The Centre for Ethnic Health Research

Community members

What were the outputs?

A poster was produced to summarise our findings.