Inclusion of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in Research

Dr. Pinto partnered with researchers and practitioners in Madrid to administer the same survey used in New York City. 

Environmental factors, such as the availability of funding for research and research-informed service may affect practitioner involvement and the use of research to guide practice. Spain is ideal for this study because its research funding policies differ from those in the U.S.

In Madrid, we collected data from 140 practitioners in 24 agencies.

Practitioners’ efforts to include ethnic- and racial-minority clients in research has been one of Dr. Pinto’s concerns. Inclusion of racial and ethnic minorities in research is problematic in the U.S. He compared practitioners’ willingness to include minorities in HIV research in New York City and in Madrid (Pinto, Gimenez, et al., 2014). New York practitioners turned out to be more involved in recruiting, interviewing, and facilitating interventions than those in Madrid.

Recruitment of minority participants increased among those practitioners that also agreed: 1.) researchers should uphold participants’ confidentiality; and 2.) who agreed that research must balance risks and benefits. This shows that practitioners ought to be trained in scientific research and protection of participants in order to improve their recruitment of underrepresented individuals.

Recently, we conducted another round of data collection in Spain. We are analyzing this data and are working on several publications.