Building and Sustaining a Community Advisory Board of African American Older Adults as the Foundation for Volunteer Research Recruitment and Retention in Health Sciences.

Abstract

Older African Americans’ participation in health-related research is severely limited; they are not involved in sufficient numbers to ensure the applicability of advance­ments in medical and behavioral health. This research participation gap exacerbates older African Americans’ vulnerability to poor health outcomes and disparities. The Michigan Center for Urban African Ameri­can Aging Research employs a progressive community-based participatory model that utilizes a structured community advisory board (CAB) of African American older adults in metro Detroit, Michigan to oversee the research recruitment and retention of fellow minority older adult research partici­pants. CAB members develop and support community health programming that provides free resources to older adults and also serves as fertile ground for recruiting participants in a volunteer research registry. CAB members are also provided ongoing training on social and behavioral health research and are supported in acting as a consultancy to outside researchers where they can be compensated for their expertise and engagement. This community-engaged model of sustaining a CAB of African Ameri­can older adults offers key lessons learned on building relationships and trust, valuing and leveraging community members’ exper­tise and time, sharing decision-making, and fostering genuine community all while pro­moting research recruitment and retention among underserved populations.Ethn Dis. 2020;30(Suppl 2):755-764; doi:10.18865/ed.30.S2.755