Need to Improve Minority Representation through COVID-19 Community Research Partnership

ABSTRACT

Background. Minorities are often unrepresented in research, which limits equity in healthcare advances. The racial and ethnic disparities in outcomes of individuals infected with COVID-19 highlight the importance of inclusivity in research to improve public health measures. Methods. We performed a descriptive analysis of the racial and ethnic distribution of children enrolled in our COVID-19 Community Research Partnership (CRP) study, a syndromic and serological surveillance study of children aged 2 - 17 years receiving care at three healthcare systems spanning North and South Carolina. Syndromic surveillance involved daily symptom reporting using a webbased monitoring application. Participants consenting to serological surveillance were mailed at-home tests sampling finger prick capillary blood. In-person and electronic recruitment efforts were conducted in English and Spanish. At one of the study sites, we compared the racial/ethnic distribution of enrolled children to the racial/ethnic distribution of all children who received care at the same site during the same timeframe. We compared the racial/ethnic distribution of participants who ultimately submitted samples for serological testing compared to those who consented to serologic testing. Results. At total of1630 children were enrolled from April 2, 2021 - June 8, 2021. Most children were > 5 years old, 50.2% were female, and 88.5% were from mostly urban counties (Table 1). Of enrolled children, 4.2% were Hispanic, 8.2% were black, and 81.6% were white (Table 2). Among 135,355 unique children who received care at the institution during the same time, 12.4% were Hispanic, 23.0% were black, and 63.1% were white. Of 1552 participants who consented to serologic testing, 4.4% were Hispanic, 8.1% were black, and 81.8% were white (Table 3). To date, 242 children submitted serologic samples;4.1% were Hispanic, 5.0% were black, and 85.5% were white. Conclusion. Despite efforts to recruit a diverse group of children, the proportion of minorities enrolled in our COVID-19 surveillance study underrepresents the targeted population. Ongoing efforts will work to identify barriers and facilitators to research participation among minority families.