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 inpatien ts are discussed in the context of a study on the influence of ethnici ty on psychiatric diagnosis. Ethnically diverse psychiatric residents interviewed 960 Black and White inpatients in 2 urban psychiatric hosp itals. 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 in terviewer and patient ethnicity did not influence African Americans' l ikelihood of participating in or of refusing an interview. This articl e summarizes a number of guidelines that others may find useful in con ducting clinical research with African Americans, ranging from the for mation of academic-public liaisons to interviewer training.