INTRODUCTION
Racial and ethnic disparities in clinical research, although documented in aggregate, are poorly understood due to a lack of data on the population eligible to participate. We compared the characteristics of Medicare beneficiaries who participated in the Imaging Dementia-Evidence for Amyloid Scanning (IDEAS) study to those eligible to participate.
METHODS
We used 100% Medicare claims data from 2016 to 2017 to identify IDEAS study participants and those eligible to participate.
RESULTS
We identified 11,480 beneficiaries in the IDEAS study sample and 3,008,067 in the eligible sample. Participants were more likely to reside in urban areas, less likely to be enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid, or a Medicare Advantage plan. Black and Hispanic participants were more likely to reside in higher-income counties and were healthier than the eligible sample.
DISCUSSION
Racial and ethnic minority participants in clinical research differ from those eligible, particularly in socioeconomic and insurance characteristics, affecting generalizability.
The full article is available at Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
Haye S, Ferido P, Jacobson M. Participation in clinical research among racial and ethnic minority Medicare beneficiaries: Evidence from the IDEAS study. Alzheimers Dement. 2025 Jul;21(7):e70517. doi: 10.1002/alz.70517.
