Living with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart muscle becomes abnormally thick, can be frightening. When new treatments are developed, they rely on clinical trials to prove they work. However, a new look at these trials reveals a troubling gap in who gets to participate in the research.
Researchers looked at 1,780 participants across 13 different trials for this heart condition. They found that Black participants made up only about 4% of the group. This number is much lower than what would be expected based on the actual number of Black people living with this disease in the general population. In fact, the participation rate for Black patients was only about one quarter of what it should have been.
Investigators looked for reasons why this gap exists. They checked if the location of the clinics or the specific medical rules for joining a study caused the low numbers. They found that neither the location of the site nor the strictness of the entry rules were the main reasons for the low turnout. This suggests that other factors are keeping Black patients out of these important medical studies.
