How to Eliminate Disparity in Clinical Trials

One of the challenges facing researchers in the process of designing clinical trials is the existence of disparities within a group of people or things being researched. Disparities are generally defined as differences among things or individuals. Disparities among research subjects can affect the results of the research being conducted, which can lead to inaccurate interpretations of the outcomes of a study. For example, when researching the effect of medication on a group of subjects with diabetes, certain people may be predisposed to a particular response based on their race. The results of the study may then not accurately reflect whether the outcome was specifically caused by the medicine.

Things You'll Need

• Research topic
• Hypothesis

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Instructions

• 1

  Identify potential areas of disparity that could have an effect on the results of your study. These may include things like socioeconomic status, careers, stress levels, co-morbidities (other medical conditions), genetic predisposition, environmental influences, and psychological and social factors.

• 2

  Identify your target population (the group of people on whom you want to perform your research). Narrow the scope of your search to reduce the number of potential disparities that may exist between the participants.

• 3

  Design a thorough survey and interview process to assist in choosing research participants. Be sure that these tools address the areas of possible disparity identified in the step above.

• 4

  Discuss the possible effect that any disparities may have had on the results of the study in the appropriate section of the article.