title: Strategies for recruiting representative samples of Asian Americans for a population-based case-control study.
abstract: Data are limited on effective methods for recruiting persons, especially from ethnically diverse populations, into population-based studies. The goal of this study was to evaluate the variation among and representativeness of controls identified using multiple methods for a population-based case-control study of breast cancer among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) in the San Francisco Bay Area.
  
  
  
  We used a unique combination of targeted recruitment strategies, including address-based sampling, community-based methods, and internet-based and media-based approaches for recruiting controls, frequency matched on age and ethnicity to a population-based sample of cases. To characterise the participating controls, we compared the distribution of sociodemographic characteristics and cancer risk factors between recruitment sources using χ(2) tests. To ensure that the controls we recruited were representative of the underlying at-risk population, we compared characteristics of the controls, by ethnicity and in aggregate, to data from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), and adjusted the relative mix of recruitment strategies throughout the study as needed to achieve representativeness.
  
  
  
  As expected, controls (n=483) recruited by any single method were not representative. However, when aggregated across methods, controls were largely representative of the underlying source population, as characterised by CHIS, with regard to the characteristics under study, including nativity, education, marital status and body mass index.
  
  
  
  A multimode approach using targeted recruitment strategies is an effective and feasible alternative to using a single recruitment method in identifying a representative, diverse control sample for population-based studies.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, California, USA School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Celeste K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, California, USA.
authors.forename: Pamela L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Horn-Ross
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: Gilbert C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Gee
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, California, USA Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford, California, USA Department of Health Research & Policy (Epidemiology), School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Salma
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shariff-Marco
authors.affiliation: Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford, California, USA Department of Health Research & Policy (Epidemiology), School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA Asian Health Services, Oakland, California, USA Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, California, USA.
authors.forename: Thu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Quach
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, California, USA.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.affiliation: Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Roxanna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bautista
authors.affiliation: Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia Quema
authors.initials: PQ
authors.lastname: La Chica
authors.affiliation: Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Winston
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.affiliation: Asian Americans for Community Involvement, San Jose, California, USA.
authors.forename: Pancho
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, California, USA Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford, California, USA Department of Health Research & Policy (Epidemiology), School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Christina A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Clarke
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, California, USA.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Division of General Internal Medicine, Center for Vulnerable Populations, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors.forename: Gem M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Le
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, California, USA.
authors.forename: Alison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Canchola
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Melinda L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Irwin
authors.affiliation: Center for Biomedical Ethics, School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Sandra Soo-Jin
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, California, USA Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford, California, USA Department of Health Research & Policy (Epidemiology), School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Scarlett Lin
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Gomez
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001213:Asian / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006254:Hawaii / Q000208:ethnology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D044468:Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018579:Patient Selection; D012042:Registries; D012495:San Francisco
keywords: Cancer epidemiology; ETHNICITY; Epidemiological methods; METHODOLOGY; Research Design in Epidemiology