TRANSFORMATIVE APPROACH TO REDUCE RESEARCH DISPARITIES TOWARDS DRUG USERS

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管个别研究人员和项目侧重于代表性不足的人群和急需服务的人群，但吸毒者仍然被排除在研究之外，与服务没有联系。这项拟议的研究将通过现有的社区研究中心（华盛顿大学CTSA的关键组成部分）改变研究格局。在这项新的国家药物开发协会倡议中，我们将扩展我们成功的国家药物开发协会模式，积极招募和招收多代代表性不足的人群，特别是吸毒者，参与研究，并将他们与迫切需要的卫生和社会服务联系起来。与华盛顿大学CTSA的多个核心合作，该项目将招募、注册和跟踪参与者，以实现以下具体目标：对调查人员、协调员、内部审查委员会成员和人类研究保护办公室（HRPO）工作人员进行需求评估，以了解在研究中排除、招募和保留代表性不足的人群（包括吸毒者）的态度；2)。评估需求评估的结果，以制订教育指引和建议，使研究更具包容性。3)。将我们的CTSA街头外展模式扩展到最近使用非法药物的目标人群，并将他们与CCBR联系起来，在那里他们将被转介到卫生服务机构，评估医疗和精神病史，并邀请他们参加华盛顿大学医学院的研究；3 b)。将200名符合研究条件的参与者随机分配到新建立的CCBR导航模型（转介到相关的WUSM研究）或增强的导航模型（由“研究大使”指导参与者完成所有研究阶段）。将在随机化后30天、2个月和3个月评估有效性；3 c)。评估该模型的有效性，以将参与者转介到初级护理院和其他所需的服务，提高对导航的满意度，减少感知到的歧视，并报告参与的障碍减少。这笔赠款将为吸毒者在公共卫生的所有领域进一步翻译和传播基于证据的做法提供机会。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although individual researchers and projects have focused on underrepresented populations and populations critically in need of services, drug users remain excluded from research studies and unlinked to services. This proposed study will change the research landscape through the existing Center for Community Based Research, a pivotal component of the Washington University CTSA. In this new NIDA initiative, we will extend our successful NIDA model to actively recruit and enroll multi-generational underrepresented populations, specifically drug users, into research studies and will link them to desperately needed health and social services. Working with the multiple cores of the Washington University CTSA, this project will recruit, enroll and follow up participants to achieve these specific aims: 1.) Conduct a Needs Assessments among investigators, coordinators, IRB members and Human Research Protection Office (HRPO) staff to understand attitudes toward excluding, enrolling and retaining underrepresented populations, including drug users, in research; 2.) Evaluate the findings from the Needs Assessment to formulate educational guidelines and recommendations to make research more inclusive. 3a.) Extend our CTSA street-based outreach model to target persons with recent illicit drug use and link them to the CCBR, where they will be referred to health services, assessed for medical and psychiatric history, and invited to participate in Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) research studies; 3b.) Randomize 200 study-eligible participants to either the newly established CCBR navigator model of referral to a relevant WUSM study, or to an enhanced navigation model where a "study ambassador" guides the participant through all research stages. Effectiveness will be assessed at 30 days, 2 months and 3 months after randomization; 3c.) Evaluate the effectiveness of the model to refer participants to primary care homes and other needed services, to increase satisfaction with navigation, to reduce perceived discrimination, and to report fewer barriers to participation. This grant will provide the opportunity to further translate and disseminate evidence- based practices across all arenas of public health for drug users. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project will enhance public health by increasing the generalizability of medical research studies by developing, using and evaluating innovative methods to recruit and enroll multi- generational underrepresented populations, including drug users, into relevant research studies. These community-based research services will reduce researchers' perceptions that enrolling and retaining underrepresented populations is difficult, provide a catalyst to revise stringent inclusion/exclusion criteria to include these underrepresented populations, and link participants with critical and previously unattainable services.