South Asian patients' participation in rheumatology research
Research type
Research Study
Full title
South Asians' participation in rheumatology research; a qualitative exploration of the views of patients and health professionals
IRAS ID
187704
Contact name
Sarah Peters
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 27 days
Research summary
Research demonstrates that South Asian patients have different illness and treatment beliefs about rheumatological conditions compared with white European counterparts. These beliefs can act as barriers to medication adherence and self-management of disease, leading to, what has been described as, ethnic health inequality. Alongside this, ethnic groups are often under-represented in health research, which limits the appropriateness of services and clinical recommendations arising from this biased research (Hussain-Gambles, 2004). For example, a treatment developed to control a condition such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus that works well in a trial where all the participants are White Europeans might not be suitable for South Asian individuals. Clinicians might nevertheless use the treatment in all their patients irrespective of their ethnicity and therefore inadvertently increase ethnic health inequality. A core need therefore is to understand ways of better engaging South Asian patients in clinical research.
Ten South Asian patients and ten clinical rheumatology researchers will be invited for an interview to explore their views about how health professionals and researchers can facilitate their involvement in research trials. Patients identifying as from a South Asian background, attending routine rheumatology clinics at the Manchester Royal Infirmary will be identified and invited to take part by the clinical co-supervisor based in the department. They will be invited for a one-to-one, semi-structured interview to discuss issues surrounding research in rheumatology. Clinician researchers recruited from rheumatology departments where there is a large proportion of South Asian patients (e.g. Leeds, Oldham, Coventry, Leicester and Birmingham) and identified through university websites. All interviews will be conducted by the student researcher at a time of the participants choosing and be audiorecorded and transcribed verbatim. Interviews with patients will take place at the rheumatology department or by phone. Clinician interviews will take place by phone. Transcripts will be analysed using Thematic Analysis.REC name
HSC REC B
REC reference
15/NI/0206
Date of REC Opinion
28 Sep 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion