title: Difficult-to-recruit respondents and their effect on prevalence estimates in an epidemiologic survey.
abstract: Generous contact efforts were used to recruit 3,004 respondents into the first wave of the St. Louis Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) project, a psychiatric epidemiologic study of the general population, conducted from 1981-1982. These efforts were analyzed to establish which sociodemographic characteristics or current psychiatric disorders were determinants of difficulty in recruitment. Being young, male, black, a nonrural resident, educated, and full-time employed were the demographic characteristics associated with increased contact efforts. Persons currently meeting criteria for an alcohol disorder required almost 20% more contact attempts than those without the disorder; this difficulty lay both in their being less available for an initial contact and refusing at a higher rate once contacted. An optimal recruitment effort cutoff point is provided, and a method is suggested for detecting that optimal point in the course of ongoing studies.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D008923:Missouri; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population