Journal
PLOS ONE
Volume 14, Issue 5, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216282
Keywords
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Categories
Funding
- Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) [PPRN-1501-26848]
- Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Institutional Training Grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases [T32DK007219]
- American Academy of Neurology
- Tourette Association of America
- Center for California Studies at Sacramento State University
- Health Trust
- Veterans Affairs Women's Health Clinical Research Fellowship
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases [K12DK111028]
- National Institute on Drug Abuse [K23DA039800]
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Introduction Historical and current stigmatizing and discriminatory experiences drive sexual and gender minority (SGM) people away from health care and clinical research. Being medically underserved, they face numerous disparities that make them vulnerable to poor health outcomes. Effective methods to engage and recruit SGM people into clinical research studies are needed. Objectives To promote health equity and understand SGM health needs, we sought to design an online, national, longitudinal cohort study entitled The PRIDE (Population Research in Identity and Disparities for Equality) Study that enabled SGM people to safely participate, provide demographic and health data, and generate SGM health-related research ideas. Methods We developed an iPhone mobile application (app) to engage and recruit SGM people to The PRIDE Study-Phase 1. Participants completed demographic and health surveys and joined in asynchronous discussions about SGM health-related topics important to them for future study. Results The PRIDE Study-Phase 1 consented 18,099 participants. Of them, 16,394 provided data. More than 98% identified as a sexual minority, and more than 15% identified as a gender minority. The sample was diverse in terms of sexual orientation, gender identity, age, race, ethnicity, geographic location, education, and individual income. Participants completed 24,022 surveys, provided 3,544 health topics important to them, and cast 60,522 votes indicating their opinion of a particular health topic. Conclusions We developed an iPhone app that recruited SGM adults and collected demographic and health data for a new national online cohort study. Digital engagement features empowered participants to become committed stakeholders in the research development process. We believe this is the first time that a mobile app has been used to specifically engage and recruit large numbers of an underrepresented population for clinical research. Similar approaches may be successful, convenient, and cost-effective at engaging and recruiting other vulnerable populations into clinical research studies.
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