title: Telephone Surveys Underestimate Cigarette Smoking among African-Americans.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study tested the hypothesis that data from random digit-dial telephone surveys underestimate the prevalence of cigarette smoking among African-American adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  A novel, community-sampling method was used to obtain a statewide, random sample of N = 2118 California (CA) African-American/Black adults, surveyed door-to-door. This Black community sample was compared to the Blacks in the CA Health Interview Survey (N = 2315), a statewide, random digit-dial telephone survey conducted simultaneously.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Smoking prevalence was significantly higher among community (33%) than among telephone survey (19%) Blacks, even after controlling for sample differences in demographics.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Telephone surveys underestimate smoking among African-Americans and probably underestimate other health risk behaviors as well. Alternative methods are needed to obtain accurate data on African-American health behaviors and on the magnitude of racial disparities in them.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Disparities, East Carolina University , Greenville, NC , USA.
authors.forename: Hope
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Landrine
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatric Medicine, Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University , Greenville, NC , USA.
authors.forename: Irma
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Corral
authors.affiliation: California Black Health Network , San Diego, CA , USA.
authors.forename: Denise Adams
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Simms
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, San Diego State University , San Diego, CA , USA.
authors.forename: Scott C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Roesch
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of Memphis , Memphis, TN , USA.
authors.forename: Latrice C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Pichon
authors.affiliation: California Black Health Network , San Diego, CA , USA.
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ake
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, San Diego State University , San Diego, CA , USA.
authors.forename: Feion
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Villodas
keywords: blacks; methodology; smoking; telephone health surveys