JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Diverse populations are underrepresented in clinical trials, limiting the generalizability of new treatments and their efficacy and uptake in these populations. It is essential to identify and understand effective strategies for enrolling young adults in clinical trials, as they represent a vital and a key demographic for future clinical trial participation.

Objective:

In response, an interdisciplinary effort consisting of social listening, qualitative focus groups, and co-design workshops were utilized to develop, test, and evaluate digital tools designed to encourage participation of diverse young adults in the clinical trial process.

Methods:

Digital tools were designed and evaluated using a four-phase approach that included: 1) social listening to characterize lived experiences with COVID-19 trials as self-reported by online users; (2) qualitative focus groups with diverse young adults to explore specific lived attitudes and experiences related to COVID-19 clinical research hesitancy and engagement; (3) a series of co-creation and co-design workshops to build digital tools aimed at encouraging clinical trial participation; and (4) a controlled intercept study to assess the usability and specific outcome measures of the co-designed digital tools among diverse young adults.

Results:

A significantly higher change in likelihood of participating in a clinical trial post-exposure was observed among study participants when exposed to prototypes of a mobile application (Δ=0.74 on 10-point scale, p=0.002) and website (0.93, p<0.001) compared to those exposed to a Facebook ad (-0.21) but not a digital flyer (0.58). Furthermore, those exposed to the mobile application (5.76, p=0.042) and electronic flier (5.72, p=0.044), but not the website (5.55), exhibited significantly higher post-exposure interest in learning about clinical trials when compared to participants exposed to the Facebook ad (5.06). Participants in the intercept study were more likely to consider joining a clinical trial after seeing a mobile app (0.74, p=0.002) or website (0.93, p<0.001) compared to a Facebook ad (-0.21), but the digital flyer (0.58) didn’t show a significant difference. Additionally, those who saw the mobile app (5.76, p=0.042) or the digital flyer (5.72, p=0.044) showed more interest in learning about clinical trials than those who saw the Facebook ad (5.06), though the website (5.55) did not significantly impact interest.

Conclusions:

Mobile applications and webpages co-designed with young diverse adults may represent effective digital tools to advance shared goals of encouraging inclusive clinical trials.