Use of lay educators to overcome barriers to research with Black older adults: a case study using Alzheimer's Disease Center.

There are many well-documented barriers to recruitment of Black participants in clinical research. This is of concern in Alzheimer's disease (AD) research because of the escalating rate of AD in this group, the increasing proportion of minority groups, and their low rate of research participation. Our Alzheimer's Disease Center (ADC) Black Advisory Board recommended we try a lay educator (LE) approach to bridge the gap between the community and university-based research center. As a result, our LE program contributed to a significant increase in the number of AD presentations given to the Black community. Although the number of Black participants enrolled in our ADC program increased from 12% to 25%, the process was challenging. However, the LE program led to significant progress in our efforts to meet our enrollment expectations, fostered links between the university and the Black community, and furthered our understanding of the barriers created by our recruiting practices. Copyright 2009, SLACK Incorporated.