Using mobile technology to engage sexual and gender minorities in clinical research.

<h4>Introduction</h4>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...

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Main Authors: Mitchell R Lunn, Matthew R Capriotti, Annesa Flentje, Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, Mark J Pletcher, Antony J Triano, Chollada Sooksaman, Jeffrey Frazier, Juno Obedin-Maliver
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2019-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216282
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author Mitchell R Lunn
Matthew R Capriotti
Annesa Flentje
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo
Mark J Pletcher
Antony J Triano
Chollada Sooksaman
Jeffrey Frazier
Juno Obedin-Maliver
author_facet Mitchell R Lunn
Matthew R Capriotti
Annesa Flentje
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo
Mark J Pletcher
Antony J Triano
Chollada Sooksaman
Jeffrey Frazier
Juno Obedin-Maliver
author_sort Mitchell R Lunn
collection DOAJ
description <h4>Introduction</h4>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.<h4>Objectives</h4>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.<h4>Methods</h4>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.<h4>Results</h4>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.<h4>Conclusions</h4>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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spelling doaj.art-b98f4fa125484497a71b75f89fa99ba22022-12-21T21:31:46ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032019-01-01145e021628210.1371/journal.pone.0216282Using mobile technology to engage sexual and gender minorities in clinical research.Mitchell R LunnMatthew R CapriottiAnnesa FlentjeKirsten Bibbins-DomingoMark J PletcherAntony J TrianoChollada SooksamanJeffrey FrazierJuno Obedin-Maliver<h4>Introduction</h4>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.<h4>Objectives</h4>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.<h4>Methods</h4>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.<h4>Results</h4>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.<h4>Conclusions</h4>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.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216282
spellingShingle Mitchell R Lunn
Matthew R Capriotti
Annesa Flentje
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo
Mark J Pletcher
Antony J Triano
Chollada Sooksaman
Jeffrey Frazier
Juno Obedin-Maliver
Using mobile technology to engage sexual and gender minorities in clinical research.
PLoS ONE
title Using mobile technology to engage sexual and gender minorities in clinical research.
title_full Using mobile technology to engage sexual and gender minorities in clinical research.
title_fullStr Using mobile technology to engage sexual and gender minorities in clinical research.
title_full_unstemmed Using mobile technology to engage sexual and gender minorities in clinical research.
title_short Using mobile technology to engage sexual and gender minorities in clinical research.
title_sort using mobile technology to engage sexual and gender minorities in clinical research
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216282
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