Title: TELEPHONE HOUSEHOLD SCREENING AND INTERVIEWING
Abstract: The selection of random population samples by telephone and telephone interviewing of study subjects have become useful tools in epidemiologic research. As part of a case control study in Washington, D.C., a telephone interview was conducted with an age stratified sample of women--30-49 and 50-69 years. The Waksberg random digit dialing procedure was used to identify residential telephone numbers. Of the 590 residential telephone numbers called, 575 or 97% yielded the information on ages of household members needed to draw the stratified sample (this is referred to as the screening response rate). 94% of the 175 women selected at that time were immediately reinterviewed (this is referred to as the interview response rate. The overall response rate (97% x 94% = 91%) is higher than often can be achieved when the population is sampled and sent a letter between telephone screening and interviewing. Prior to the study a test was conducted on 50 households. At half of the households questions concerning the full names and ages of all women in the households and an address to which to mail a letter explaining the study were asked. After the telephone call, a letter was mailed to all household members selected into the sample. 7 days later all eligible women were called to arrange a telephone interview. In the other 26 households, full names and addresses were not asked, and the sample selection was done by the interviewer during the telephone call. All eligible women were immediately asked for an interview or, if they were not home, called later. The screening response rate was 16% lower in the households where full names and addresses were asked, but among the identified eligible women the interview response rates were nearly identical. Since requesting the full name and address appeared to reduce the cooperation rate, the other procedure was chosen for this study. The main disadvantages of this study were an additional responsibility for the interviewers to select eligible respondents for each strata and loss of opportunity to explain the purpose and legitimacy of the study in a letter. The interviewers did receive a detailed explanation of the study purpose and the confidentiality guidelines as stated in all National Institutes of Health epidemiologic studies. During the study only 1 of the selected subjects refused because of her concern about the legitimacy of the study. The questionnaire consisted of 23 questions primarily concerned with pregnancy and menstrual history and present and prior use of birth control and female hormone pills.
Publication Year: 1983
Publication Date: 1983-05-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
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Cited By Count: 19
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