COIOS
Healthcare today Item new preprint

Black participants were 4% of Black and White enrolment in landmark HCM trials

Across 13 landmark hypertrophic cardiomyopathy trials, 70 of 1,780 Black or White participants were Black, a pooled share of 3.98% against a population expectation of 16.5%, and site geography and eligibility thresholds did not account for the shortfall.

The authors screened 197 registered interventional hypertrophic cardiomyopathy trials, identified 32 landmark trials and extracted race for 13, then compared the Black share of participants with US population, trial site-catchment and echocardiographic disease-prevalence expectations. The pooled Black share was 3.98% (95% CI 2.68 to 5.86) against 16.5% in the adult population, a participation-to-prevalence ratio of 0.24. Site networks reached 63.7% of Black US adults and predicted 26.4% enrolment, while quantitative eligibility thresholds closed only 2.0% of the gap.

Why it is interesting: Enrolment in trials for a condition at least as common in Black as in White Americans fell far below population share, and site geography and eligibility thresholds did not close the gap.

Source
medRxiv, 27 September 2026
DOI
10.64898/2026.09.24.26363977
Type
Preprint
Design
Meta-analysis of participant demographics from 13 of 32 landmark interventional hypertrophic cardiomyopathy trials (1,780 Black or White participants), with geospatial site-catchment and NHANES eligibility modelling
Verdict
New finding
Driver
Heart and stroke
Driver
Health funding and inequalities