Attaining gender and ethnic diversity in health intervention research: Cultural responsiveness versus resource provision

Despite the National Institutes of Health (NIH) mandate to include women an d diverse ethnic groups in all NIH-funded research projects, these groups a re still excluded as participants in health intervention research. This exc lusion has denied them access to state-of-the-art treatments and prevention strategies, making them vulnerable to increased morbidity and mortality an d decreased longevity. This article compares two conceptual approaches to i nclusion: cultural responsiveness and resource provision. Several issues ar e raised as to why women and ethnic people of color are not involved in hea lth intervention research. For each of these issues, an appraisal is made a s to whether cultural responsiveness or resource provision would more succe ssfully address the problem. It is concluded that cultural responsiveness f acilitates participation in research but is not sufficient. An equally impo rtant, if not more important, approach may be the provision of resources to empower participants to address problems of access and burden.