Barriers and facilitators for engaging underrepresented ethnic minority populations in healthcare research: an umbrella review

Research highlights that participation of ethnic minority individuals in research is low when compared to white counterparts. This poses challenges for healthcare planning and delivery, as lack of representativeness in research means that findings are generalised across all ethnic groups, and do not provide stakeholders with a full picture of how minority populations are affected. This contributes to health inequalities as these populations may then be underserved and not get the best possible management if differences due to ethnicity were to exist. This study synthesises the barriers to engaging minority individuals in research to understand, and enablers to better engagement of different minority communities in healthcare research.

Five databases were searched (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Web of Science and EMBASE) up to 29th April 2024, resulting in 897 articles, of which 11 met the inclusion criteria. Data were extracted from reviews and synthesised using qualitative meta-aggregation techniques. The socio-ecological framework was applied to synthesise the main outcomes. A protocol for this review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42024532686).