Clinical Trial Participation Motivation: Role of Smoking Status

TL;DR

This study explores how smoking status affects people's motivation to join clinical trials, finding that factors like age, gender, and education play key roles.

Contribution

The novel contribution is identifying how smoking status interacts with demographic factors to influence clinical trial participation motivation.

Findings

Female current smokers showed higher motivation for clinical trial participation.

Education positively influenced motivation among former smokers.

Older age and Hispanic ethnicity were linked to lower motivation among former smokers.

Abstract

Introduction: The success of clinical trials hinges on the effective recruitment and retention of participants, which remains a persistent challenge. Smoking has well-documented adverse effects on health and is a significant predictor of various chronic diseases. However, smoking status impact on the motivation to participate in clinical trials is less clear. Methods: This cross-sectional study, utilizing data from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 5 Cycle 4 with a sample of 3793 participants, investigates how smoking status (current, former, and never smoker) influences motivation to participate in clinical trials using a structural equation model. Key predictors of trial participation include age, gender, education level, race/ethnicity, income, ethnicity, depression, and chronic respiratory conditions. Results: In the overall sample, 51.2% of the participants were females, 76.0% were White adults, 83.1% were non-Hispanic, 39.0% had some college education, and 42.5% had a household income of $75,000 or more. The mean age of the participants was 48.4 years, and the mean depression score was 2.2. Structural equation model results showed a significant positive association between female gender and motivation in clinical trial participation for current smokers. For former smokers, older age and Hispanic ethnicity showed negative associations, while education showed a positive association. For those who have never smoked, older age and other races showed negative associations. Conclusions: This study highlights the significant role of education, age, gender, and race/ethnicity among people with different smoking statuses in motivating clinical trial participation. Tailored strategies that address these barriers are essential for improving recruitment and retention in tobacco cessation trials.