title: Collecting data by telephone from low-income African Americans.
abstract: The purposes of this report are to (a) describe challenges associated with collecting data by telephone from 368 urban-dwelling African Americans and (b) describe characteristics of easy-to-reach participants. Data collected through four telephone interviews were used for these analyses. Over 1 year, 55 (15.0%) participants had at least one telephone number change; 75 (20.4%) had their telephone disconnected. The mean (+/-SD) number of attempted telephone calls per participant was 9.5 (+/-4.0). Those who were easy to reach, requiring eight or fewer call attempts over 1 year (n = 170; 46%), were older (t = 3.0, p = .003), female (chi(2) = 4.6, p = .03), and currently not working (chi(2) = 7.9, p = .005).
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA. n.artinian@wayne.edu
authors.forename: Nancy T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Artinian
authors.forename: Doris
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Denison
authors.forename: Cheryl K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Nordstrom
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044383:Black People; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011203:Poverty; D013689:Telephone; D001741:Black or African American