Clinical Trials Awareness Modules for the Lupus Conversations Academic-Community Partnership

African Americans with lupus experience an unusually long journey to obtain an accurate lupus diagnosis and receive timely treatment, either standard of care or experimental therapies available through clinical trials. These experiences contribute to the adverse outcomes and health disparities observed in African Americans who are disproportionately affected by lupus and are closely related to the disparity seen in minority participation in clinical trials associated with autoimmune disorders including lupus. The purpose of the proposed “Clinical Trials Awareness Modules for the Lupus Conversations Academic-Community Partnership” project is to develop, test, and implement locally and nationally a successful culturally-competent lupus education interventions for community stakeholders, health professionals and paraprofessionals. By developing new education materials concentrating on the inclusion of minority populations in clinical trials as informed by our target population, African-Americans, our collaborative academic and community partnership as described in this application will leverage two evidenced based models, the first is the Integrated Behavioral Model, IMB, to inform the development of the education material, and the second model uses an adaptation of the Popular Opinion Model, POL, behavior CDC evidence-based intervention using the newly developed educational materials. Our overarching goals are to address the greater social and emotional support issues related to clinical trial participation as voiced by African-American persons with lupus and to increase clinical trial recruitment and enrollment in clinical trials as a strategy to reduce lupus health disparities outcomes at the community-level.