Centering Community Engagement in a Hypertension Clinical Trial: Strategies to Engage Rural Black Patients in the Southeastern Collaboration to Improve Blood Pressure Control.

Black Americans residing in rural communities are often excluded from clinical trials for hypertension, despite having a high prevalence of the disease and frequent complications. This report describes our research team's experience to support recruitment and retention of rural Black patients with uncontrolled hypertension in the southeastern United States in a cluster-randomized clinical trial. While the focus of this report is on enrollment and engagement, the strategies employed were grounded in long-standing community-engaged research efforts and guided by principles of trust-building, transparency, and shared leadership. We share the challenges encountered and reflect on lessons learned to inform future approaches that authentically engage historically excluded and under-represented communities as active partners in research.

Duke Scholars

Author Stephanie Hart School of Nursing