title: Comparing sexual minority cancer survivors recruited through a cancer registry to convenience methods of recruitment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Sexual minority women, defined as having a lesbian or bisexual identity or reporting a preference for a female partner, are not considered by cancer surveillance. This study assesses the representativeness of sexual minority breast cancer survivors, defined as having a lesbian or bisexual identity or reporting a preference for a female partner, who were recruited into a convenience sample compared with a population-based registry sample of sexual minority breast cancer survivors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Long-term survivors of non-metastatic breast cancer who self-reported as sexual minority were recruited from a cancer registry and subsequently from the community using convenience recruitment methods. Sexual minority breast cancer survivors who screened eligible participated in a telephone survey about their quality of life and factors associated therewith.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants in the convenience sample were similar to the registry-based sample with respect to adjustment to cancer, physical health, trust in physician, coping, social support, and sexual minority experiences. Compared with the convenience sample, breast cancer survivors in the registry sample were more likely married, more educated, diagnosed more recently, at an earlier stage of cancer, and more likely treated with breast-conserving surgery; they differed on adjuvant therapies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Because sexual minority breast cancer survivors who volunteered for the community-based sample shared most characteristics of the sample recruited from the cancer registry, we concluded that the community sample had comparable representational quality. In the absence of cancer surveillance of sexual minorities, thoughtful convenience recruitment methods provide good representational quality convenience samples.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA. boehmer@bu.edu
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Boehmer
authors.forename: Melissa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Timm
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Glickman
authors.forename: Mairead
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sullivan
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001727:Bisexuality; D001940:Breast / Q000601:surgery; D001943:Breast Neoplasms; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D018452:Homosexuality, Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D018579:Patient Selection; D012042:Registries; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012923:Social Class; D012944:Social Support; D017741:Survivors; D035502:Trust