African American Women’s Perspectives on Donating Healthy Breast Tissue for Research: Implications for Recruitment

Abstract

African American women die of breast cancer at a higher rate than any other racial group. The Komen Tissue Bank (KTB) is an ongoing clinical trial that collects healthy breast tissue from women of all racial groups to use as controls in research and represents a critical tool in efforts to treat and prevent breast cancer; however, African Americans display reticence toward donating breast tissue to the KTB. Through the lens of the Integrated Behavioral Model, this study recruited African American women to share their perspectives on donating breast tissue for research purposes. Seventy-one (N = 71) eligible Black women who were previous tissue donors to the KTB responded to an online questionnaire. Findings revealed that (a) participants had positive instrumental attitudes or reasons for donating; (b) participants felt generally supported in their decision to donate, but revealed that the lack of Black women participating in the KTB meant that they themselves were setting the norm for others; and (c) their race was an important element in their donation decision. While acknowledging the negative history of African Americans in medical research, they offered their perceptions regarding the importance of involving themselves in medical research, and suggested that health communication strategies to recruit African Americans into research should embrace race as part of the message. The findings from this study have important implications for other those who work in applied clinical settings and are interested in addressing racial disparities in medical research through more effective and targeted recruitment messaging.