Open AccessRedressing Past Wrongs: Changing the Common Rule to Increase Minority Voices in Research
Author(s) -
William C Rencher,
Leslie E. Wolf
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.2013.301356
Subject(s) - socioeconomic status , health equity , blame , representation (politics) , government (linguistics) , political science , race (biology) , affect (linguistics) , sexual minority , minority group , ethnic group , criminology , medicine , gerontology , psychology , sociology , environmental health , gender studies , social psychology , health care , law , sexual orientation , politics , population , linguistics , philosophy , communication
Numerous diseases disproportionately affect African Americans across socioeconomic, age, gender, and geographic groups. Despite the need for research into these disparities, African Americans are often underrepresented in research. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study receives much of the blame for this problem, but other contributing factors have also been identified. To date, government policies seeking to increase African American participation have had limited success, and recently proposed changes to the Common Rule do not address this problem. Therefore, we have proposed 3 changes: treating racial minorities as vulnerable, requiring community consultation in minority research, and increasing minority representation on institutional review boards. Coupled with other efforts, these changes could help increase minority representation in researching health disparities.