Recruiting

Caring for Older African Americans

Sponsor:

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Code:

NCT05908487

Conditions

Healthy Aging

Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice

Social Responsibility

Care Eliciting Behavior

Racism, Systemic

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 0+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

AA Communities Speak to Healthcare Professionals

Study Details

Brief summary:

African Americans are less likely to receive quality end-of-life (EoL) care. Addressing disparities in EoL care will need efforts to support a better understanding of African American patients' EoL cultural values and preferences for EoL communication and the impact of historical and ongoing care delivery inequities in healthcare settings.

Our proposed "Caring for Older African Americans" training program is designed to empower clinicians to improve goal-concordant EoL care delivery by using community-developed storytelling videos to create empathy with experiences of racism in EoL care, guidelines for culturally concordant EoL care delivery, and an implicit bias recognition and management training to mitigate bias in goals of care communication.

Conditions

Healthy Aging

Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice

Social Responsibility

Care Eliciting Behavior

Racism, Systemic

Study ID

NCT05908487

Start date

Feb 27, 2025

Status verified date

May, 2026

Completion date

Jul, 2028

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Jul, 2027

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 0+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria: Aim 1.1

Person with serious Illness:

  • Self-identified as African American (i.e., born, raised, and lived primarily in the US)
  • Non-Hispanic or Latino
  • Age ≥60 years
  • English-speaking
  • Has been diagnosed with a condition that fits into one of 3 illness paradigms including cancer, cardiac disease, pulmonary disease, neuro-degenerative disease, renal disease, stroke, sepsis, hepatic disease)
  • Callahan Six-Item Screener score ≥4
  • Able to complete baseline surveys.

Bereaved family member:

  • Self-identified as African American (i.e., born, raised, and lived primarily in the US)
  • Non-Hispanic or Latino
  • Age ≥60 years
  • English-speaking
  • Loved one dies in the last 12 months and was diagnosed with a condition that fits into one of 3 illness paradigms including cancer, cardiac disease, pulmonary disease, neuro- degenerative disease, renal disease, stroke, sepsis, hepatic disease)
  • Callahan Six-Item Screener score ≥4
  • Able to complete baseline surveys.

Exclusion Criteria

Person with serious illness:

-Cannot be receiving hospice care

Bereaved Family Member:

-Cannot be a paid "sitter"

Inclusion Criteria: Aim 1.2

Bereaved Family member:

  • Self-identified as African American (i.e., born, raised, and lived primarily in the US)
  • Non-Hispanic or Latino
  • Age ≥60 years
  • English-speaking
  • Loved one dies in the last 12 months and was diagnosed with a condition that fits into one of 3 illness paradigms including cancer, cardiac disease, pulmonary disease, neuro- degenerative disease, renal disease, stroke, sepsis, hepatic disease)
  • Callahan Six-Item Screener score ≥4
  • Able to complete baseline surveys

Pastors:

  • Self-identifying as African American
  • White, Non-Hispanic or Latino
  • Sged ≥18 years old.

Inclusion Criteria: Aim 3

Clinician eligibility:

  • Practice at a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) or Montefiore/Einstein site that provides care to patients eligible for outcomes surveys
  • At least 3 months of clinical practice at the study site prior to the intervention training to measure pre-intervention patient surveys

Exclusion criteria:

-Lack of at least 3 months of clinical practice at the study site prior to the intervention training.

Patient eligibility:

  • Self-identified as African American (i.e., born, raised, and lived primarily in the US)
  • Non-Hispanic or Latino, 3. age ≥60 years
  • English-speaking
  • Has been diagnosed with a condition that fits into one of 3 illness paradigms including cancer, cardiac disease, pulmonary disease, neuro-degenerative disease, renal disease, stroke, sepsis, hepatic disease)
  • Callahan Six-Item Screener score ≥4
  • Able to complete baseline surveys.

Exclusion criteria include:

-Currently receiving hospice care.

Family member eligibility:

  • Age ≥ 18 years
  • English-speaking
  • Community-dwelling
  • Unpaid care provider of a person with a serious illness.

Exclusion criteria: 1. Cannot be a paid "sitter".

Study Design

Enrollment

60 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Health Services Research

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

other: Clinician Trainees- Cluster 1

Within each participating institution, clinician clusters are randomized to 1 of 4 start date training times for the African American Communities Speak (AACS) Education Intervention. Each arm has a pre-intervention (control) period and a post-intervention (exposure) period.

other: Clinician Trainees- Cluster 2

Within each participating institution, clinician clusters are randomized to 1 of 4 start date training times for the African American Communities Speak (AACS) Education Intervention. Each arm has a pre-intervention (control) period and a post-intervention (exposure) period

other: Clinician Trainees- Cluster 3

Within each participating institution, clinician clusters are randomized to 1 of 4 start date training times for the African American Communities Speak (AACS) Education Intervention. Each arm has a pre-intervention (control) period and a post-intervention (exposure) period

other: Clinician Trainees- Cluster 4

Within each participating institution, clinician clusters are randomized to 1 of 4 start date training times for the African American Communities Speak (AACS) Education Intervention. Each arm has a pre-intervention (control) period and a post-intervention (exposure) period

Interventions

AA Communities Speak to Healthcare Professionals

The training program is designed to empower clinicians to improve goal-concordant EoL care delivery by using community-developed storytelling videos to create empathy with experiences of racism in EoL care, guidelines for culturally concordant EoL care delivery, and implicit bias recognition and management training to mitigate bias in goals of care communication.

Primary outcome measure

  • Human Connection Scale (patient/family reported) [ Time Frame: up to 3 months before the intervention ]
  • Human Connection Scale (patient/ family reported) [ Time Frame: up to 3 months after intervention ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Ronit Elk, PhD

205.996.1702relk@uabmc.edu

Tametria V Heard, PhD

205.934.7905tvheard@uabmc.edu

Locations

UAB

Recruiting

Birmingham, Alabama, United States, 35233

Contacts

Ronit Elk, PhD

205.996.1702relk@uabmc.edu

Tametria Heard, PhD

205.934.7905tvheard@uabmc.edu

Principal Investigator:

Ronit Elk, PhD

Albert Einstein/Montefiore

Recruiting

The Bronx, New York, United States, 10461

Contacts

Elizabeth Chuang, MD

718-920-4630Echuang@montefiore.org

More Information

Sponsor

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Last update posted

May 7, 2026

Last verified

May, 2026

Keywords

  • goal concordant care older African American CBPR end-of-life

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-10. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of Alabama at Birmingham on 2026-05-07.