Background: African Americans (AA) are disproportionately impacted by cancer mortality compared to their European American (EA) counterparts. Greater participation in cancer clinical trials among AA could help to reduce this disparity. However, negative perceptions of trials appear to negatively impact trial participation among AA. The Attitudes towards Randomized Trials Questionnaire (ARTQ) has been found to be a reliable measure of trial perceptions among EA. However, the utility of this instrument has never before been tested among AA.

Objective: To evaluate the reliability of the ARTQ in assessing perceptions of cancer clinical trials in a predominantly AA sample.

Methods: Principal component analysis (PCA) and Cronbach's alpha estimates were used to assess the reliability of the ARTQ. The sample consisted of residents from South Carolina counties with high racial disparities in cancer mortality rates (N=315, 81.4% AA) who participated in the study between 2008 and 2013.

Results: Slightly more than half of the participants had at least a college diploma (60.8%), 84.8% were female, and 53.4 % had an annual household income of $40,000 or more. In this study, the PCA analysis confirmed the unidimensionality of the ARTQ. Cronbach's alpha for the ARTQ was 0.86.

Conclusion: The ARTQ displayed strong evidence of high statistical reliability in this predominantly AA sample. This analysis has great implications for future research as it represents the first test of reliability of the ARTQ in AA. The results lay the groundwork for use of the ARTQ in future studies in diverse populations. The ARTQ could be administered to potential trial participants to identify those whose trial perceptions indicate that they could benefit from participating in a clinical trials education program. The ARTQ could thus be used to foster communication with potential trial participants by highlighting areas where investigators could spend additional time describing the trial design and the safeguards in place for participants.

Citation Format: Marvella E. Ford, Dana Burshell, Franshawn Mack, Wei Wei, Elizabeth Garrett-Mayer. Evaluating the reliability of an instrument assessing cancer clinical trial perceptions in a predominantly African American sample. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Sixth AACR Conference: The Science of Cancer Health Disparities; Dec 6–9, 2013; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2014;23(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A65. doi:10.1158/1538-7755.DISP13-A65