BMJ  2003;326 (7 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7401.0-d

Minorities are under-represented in RCTs

In recent randomised controlled clinical trials, ethnic minorities were under-represented. Mason and colleagues (p 1244) searched for the number of South Asian participants (Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi) from six phase III, multicentre, randomised controlled trials. They found that only 1.7% of participants were South Asians, even though the estimated population in Great Britain for this group is 3.4%. This under-representation might be due, the authors say, to investigators' bias, inappropriate strategies for recruitment, or the cost of translating information for participants. It is of ethical and scientific concern because there are ethnic differences in susceptibility to disease and response to treatments.

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Representation of South Asian people in randomised clinical trials: analysis of trials' data

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