Improving the recruitment of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities in health and social care research: a review of literature.

It is suggested that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities experience severe health inequalities and poor health outcomes compared to indigenous white groups. However there is a dearth of health-related research undertaken with BAME populations in the UK. Many terms are used to describe this group of people such as ‘ethnic minorities’, ‘racial minorities’ ‘black and minority ethnic’ groups. The aim of this literature review is to identify the barriers and enablers for recruiting people from BAME communities in research. Searches were an iterative process, designed to keep up to date with published material from the year 2000 onwards to 2015. In total, 54 articles were retrieved from which 39 papers were included in this review. A thematic analysis was applied to identify the key issues for consideration when conducting health related research with BAME communities. A number of key themes were identified as potential barriers for conducting research with BAME communities and approaches for improving research participation of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic communities are discussed