Recruitment of women into research studies: a nursing perspective.

RESEARCH TRIALS HAVE historically underrepresented women, especially women of ethnic minority and lower socioeconomic groups. Although these populations of women are disproportionately afflicted with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), HIV studies have followed this pattern of underrepresentation. Nurses working in HIV research have developed a women-centered recruitment strategy that has been successful in enrolling women in clinical trials and epidemiological studies. Reasons for women's lack of inclusion and components of a strategy to remedy the situation are discussed.