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USING A COMMERCIAL TELEPHONE DIRECTORY TO IDENTIFY A POPULATION-BASED SAMPLE OF WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE
Citation:
LOBDELL, D. T. AND G. M. Buck. USING A COMMERCIAL TELEPHONE DIRECTORY TO IDENTIFY A POPULATION-BASED SAMPLE OF WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE. Presented at Society for Pediatric & Perinatal Epidemiology Meeting, Palm Desert, California, June 17-18, 2002.
Description:
Using a commercial telephone directory to identify a population-based sample of women of reproductive age
*DT Lobdell, GM Buck, JM Weiner, P Mendola (United States Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711)
In the United States, sampling women of reproductive age from the general population for research purposes is a challenge. Few population-based sampling frameworks exist for selecting couples at risk for pregnancy. To address this barrier, we utilized a commercially available CD-ROM telephone directory to obtain a population-based sample of women aged 18-44 years. A self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) was mailed to a stratified random sample of 10,005 households in Erie County, New York. Overall, 17% of the questionnaires were undeliverable despite using the most recent listing software and address updating services. Fifteen percent (n=1,089) of the households returned completed questionnaires, of which 35% (n=377 households) were completed by women aged 18-44 years. Using 1990 Census information for zip code regions, respondents were more likely to be white and to have higher median household incomes than non-respondents. Of the 377 women who completed the questionnaire, 79% were pregnant at least once, five percent reported being unable to become pregnant, and 16% never tried to become pregnant. Despite the overall low response to the SAQ, various subgroups of women of reproductive age (i.e., ever pregnant, never tried to become pregnant, and unable to become pregnant) were identified and captured in the sample comparable to the expected proportion in the study population. These findings suggest ways researchers can overcome response and selection issues when using commercial telephone directories, i.e., over-sample lower SES areas, account for undeliverable mail and changing addresses, and include plans for follow-up to improve response rates.
This is an abstract of a proposed presentation and does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.