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The healthy men study: design and recruitment considerations for environmental epidemiologic studies in male reproductive health
Citation:
OLSHAN, A. F., S. D. PERREAULT, L. BRADLEY, R. M. BUUS, L. F. STRADER, S. C. JEFFAY, L. LANSDELL, D. A. SAVITZ, AND A. HERRING. The healthy men study: design and recruitment considerations for environmental epidemiologic studies in male reproductive health. Fertility and Sterility. American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Birmingham, AL, 87(3):554-564, (2007).
Impact/Purpose:
Scientific research
Description:
Study Objective: To describe study conduct and response and participant characteristics. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Participants were male partners of women enrolled in a community-based study of drinking water disinfection by-products and pregnancy health. Patient(s): 230 fertile men recruited from three study sites in the United States. Interventions: Men completed a telephone interview about demographics, health history, and exposures and provided a semen sample that was express mailed to the study laboratory. Main outcome measure(s): Response and participation rates, participant demographics, and lifestyle exposures. Results: We obtained a high participation rate (84%) among men who were located, but a low overall response rate (25%). Participants were more likely to be white, more highly educated, be married, and have a higher household income than the underlying study cohort. Conclusions: Our multisite study design may be applicable to the study of community environmental factors and reproductive health of men. Our design was efficient in that men from geographically disparate sites could be recruited, a semen sample collected at home and telephone interview conducted from a central study site. Despite these design features the lowered response rates may suggest selection bias, that can be, partially addressed in the analysis.