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USE OF COMMERCIAL TELEPHONE DIRECTORY FOR OBTAINING A POPULATION-BASED SAMPLE OF WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE
Citation:
LOBDELL, D. T., G. M. Buck, J. M. Weiner, AND P Mendola. USE OF COMMERCIAL TELEPHONE DIRECTORY FOR OBTAINING A POPULATION-BASED SAMPLE OF WOMEN OF REPRODUCTIVE AGE. PAEDIATRIC AND PERINATAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, 294-301, (2003).
Description:
Using Commercial Telephone Directories to Obtain a Population-Based Sample for Mail Survey of Women of Reproductive Age
Danelle T. Lobdella, Germaine M. Buckb, John M. Weinerc, Pauline Mendolaa
aUnited States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, MD58A, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
bEpidemiology Branch, Division of Epidemiology, Statistics & Prevention, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, 6100 Building, 6100 Executive Blvd, Bethesda, MD 20852
cDepartment of Social and Preventive Medicine, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, 270 Farber Hall, Buffalo, NY 14214
Correspondence to:
Danelle T. Lobdell, Ph.D.
United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, MD58A, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
Telephone: 919-843-4434, Fax: 919-966-7584, Email: lobdell.danelle@epa.gov
Disclaimer
The research described in this article does not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and official endorsement should not be inferred. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.
Summary
In the United States, sampling women of reproductive age from the general population for research purposes is a challenge. Even more difficult is conducting a population-based study of couples attempting pregnancy to assess fecundity and fertility or related impairments. To address the problem of obtaining representative samples from the population in order to study such health-related issues, a commercially and readily available CD-ROM telephone directory was utilized and tested as a sampling framework for studies aimed at enrolling gravid women aged 18-44 years. A self-administered questionnaire (SAQ) was mailed to a stratified random sample of 10,005 (3%) households in Erie County, New York. Overall, 17% of the questionnaires were undeliverable despite updating all addresses with residential software prior to mailing. Fifteen percent (n=1,089) of the households returned completed questionnaires, of which 35% (n=377) were completed by women aged 18-44 years. Using 1990 Census information for zip code, respondents were more likely to be non-Hispanic 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, 5% reported being unable to become pregnant, and 16% reporting never trying to become pregnant. Despite the overall low response to the SAQ, the sampling framework captured a diverse group of women of reproductive age who reported various fecundity and fertility outcomes. These findings offer promise for the use of low cost commercially available software linked to Census data for selecting samples of women or couples for reproductive and perinatal research. However, oversampling of households is needed to ensure adequate sample sizes along with follow-up of non-respondents.