P1-552: increasing interest in research participation: effectiveness of a video and peer role model intervention with minority seniors

Barriers to recruitment of minorities in dementia research include mistrust of researchers and lack of information. Elderly minorities often use peers as trusted advisors to address health issues. Educational videos and telenovelas have been used to promote positive health choices through affective identification. This project explores whether an intervention that incorporates a video co- produced by faculty and community seniors in our Community Advisory Board (CAB), followed by a Q&A session co- lead by the seniors, influences attendees’ interest in research participation. CAB members collaborated with Mount Sinai Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) faculty to produce a video to increase interest in research participation among urban poor seniors. The 2-minute video featured two elderly Latina and one elderly Chinese woman speaking in English with some Spanish about dementia research. The video, followed by a Q&A session co-lead by the seniors, was shown at 19 urban low income senior centers. De-identified surveys were used to explore whether the video influenced willingness to participate in research. 83 non-Hispanic Black and 74 Hispanic attendees responded to the survey. Age (73.8±7.7) and gender (79% female) did not differ significantly by ethnicity. Education was significantly higher among non-Hispanic Blacks (12.9±3.0) than Hispanics (10.4±4.4, p<0.001). After the presentation, 79% of respondents said they were “more” or “much more” interested in research participation, 34% said that they “might want to” participate, and 29% said they “definitely wanted to” participate. Though it did not reach statistical significance, 37.5% of the Hispanics “strongly” wanted to participate (score of 5) compared to 25% of the non-Hispanic Blacks. Among attendees, the intervention increased interest and desire to participate in research. The trend toward more enthusiastic endorsement from Hispanic participants may be due to closer identification with the Latina CAB members in the video, with CAB members as co-presenters during the Q&A as well by listening to the CAB members’ firsthand experience as research participants. Therefore, using videos and lay educators who are also research participants may help encourage minority elders to engage in research.