CO-creating Novel, Feasible, and Inclusive Research Methods (CONFIRM)

April 2, 2026 updated by: Augusta University

The lessons researchers learn and evidence researchers discover from research studies are limited by who volunteered as participants in each research study. Currently, research studies do not represent the full diversity of the American people. Community engagement is one method to increase research participation. But, there is a lack of evidence for recommending a particular level of community engagement over others. This team of scientists, physicians, and community members developed an innovative approach to increase full participation of participants in research studies. The proposed project, Co-creating Novel, Feasible, and Inclusive Research Methods (CONFIRM), is designed to test if researchers can increase research participation by creating methods in partnership with the research participants themselves.

As the team has conducted research around breast cancer, these researchers have repeatedly encountered Black women who see the importance of the overall topic and want to help people like them. But when they hear about what exactly they have to do as part of the study, they do not volunteer. This team wants to change that. Researchers plan to recruit participants to answer research questions, and then with those volunteers, researchers will decide together on the tasks and activities volunteers will complete in the study. In contrast to how researchers usually do science, this innovative approach switches the order of design and participant recruitment. Researchers enroll and engage volunteers before methods are selected. This team engages research participants as "co-researchers." This word emphasizes the act of carrying out research with/by participants who are not professional researchers, instead of to/about/for them. The team proposes that participants will design a method that is acceptable, feasible, and relevant to themselves and their community.

Researchers will recruit 240 participants from community sites, such as health fairs, retail stores, churches, and schools, who will be divided into two groups based on where they signed up for the study. Half of the participants will complete research procedures (survey, health measurements, blood draw) as the research team designed them before the study started. The other half of participants will work with the research team to adjust the procedures to be acceptable and relevant to the participants before completing the revised procedures. Researchers predict that the group of participants who co-design procedures will have a higher completion rate of inidividual items and stay in the study for longer than the group of participants who complete the pre-designed procedures.

By demonstrating the effectiveness of this innovative approach, researchers aim to empower people to become more involved in research.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

240

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Georgia
      • Augusta, Georgia, United States, 30912
        • Augusta University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • female
  • identify as Black or African American
  • English speaking
  • Must weigh at least 110 pounds

Exclusion Criteria:

  • hearing impaired (requires use of American Sign Language interpreter)
  • employed in medical research discipline

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Participant co-designed procedures
Other: Participant co-design
Participants will meet with researchers to co-design study procedures
No Intervention: Pre-designed procedures

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
retention
Time Frame: 2 years
Percent of participants who complete study across two data collection cycles
2 years
Data completeness
Time Frame: 2 years
Percent of items and tasks that participants complete across the study
2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Augusta University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

June 21, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

July 31, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

November 30, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 19, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 19, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

March 23, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 8, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 2, 2026

Last Verified

March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2291664
  • SOE-2024C1-36758 (Other Grant/Funding Number: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI))

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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