American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on October 13, 2006
American Journal of Epidemiology 2007 165(1):109-112; doi:10.1093/aje/kwj351
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PRACTICE OF EPIDEMIOLOGY |
An Internet-based Method of Selecting Control Populations for Epidemiologic Studies
From the Public Health Program, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Correspondence to Mary Bishop Stone, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Utah, 375 Chipeta Way, Suite A, Salt Lake City, UT 84108 (e-mail: marybishop.stone{at}utah.edu).
Identifying control subjects for epidemiologic studies continues to increase in difficulty because of changes in telephone technology such as answering services and machines, caller identification, and cell phones. An Internet-based method for obtaining study subjects that may increase response rates has been developed and is described. This method uses information from two websites that, when combined, provide accurate and complete lists of names, addresses, and listed phone numbers. This method was developed by use of randomly selected streets in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah, in June 2005.
control groups; epidemiologic methods; patient participation; patient selection; research design
Abbreviations: RDD, random digit dialing