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American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on September 7, 2007
American Journal of Epidemiology 2007 166(10):1210-1219; doi:10.1093/aje/kwm192
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American Journal of Epidemiology © The Author 2007. Published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

PRACTICE OF EPIDEMIOLOGY

Recruiting Hispanic Women for a Population-based Study: Validity of Surname Search and Characteristics of Nonparticipants

Carol Sweeney1, Sandra L. Edwards1, Kathy B. Baumgartner2, Jennifer S. Herrick1, Leslie E. Palmer1, Maureen A. Murtaugh1, Antoinette Stroup1 and Martha L. Slattery1

1 Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
2 Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, School of Public Health and Information Sciences, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY

Correspondence to Dr. Carol Sweeney, Division of Clinical Epidemiology, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Utah, 30 North 1900 East, Room AC230, Salt Lake City, UT 84132 (e-mail: carol.sweeney{at}hsc.utah.edu).

Received for publication December 14, 2006. Accepted for publication May 31, 2007.

Conducting research on the health of Hispanic populations in the United States entails challenges of identifying individuals who are Hispanic and obtaining good study participation. In this report, identification of Hispanics using a surname search and ethnicity information collected by cancer registries was validated, compared with self-report, for breast cancer cases and controls in Utah and New Mexico. Factors influencing participation by Hispanics in a study interview in 2000–2005 were evaluated. The positive predictive value of identification as Hispanic by cancer registry records and surname search was 82.3% for cases and 73.2% for controls. Hispanics who were correctly classified differed from those who were misclassified, reporting lower language acculturation and educational attainment. Older age was positively associated with success in contacting Hispanic controls (ptrend < 0.0001) but negatively associated with cooperation with the interview (ptrend < 0.0001). Community characteristics described by US Census data, including income, education, and urban/rural residence, did not significantly influence participation by Hispanic cases or controls. The authors conclude that a surname search efficiently identifies Hispanics, although individuals identified using this method are not completely representative. Recruitment of Hispanic cases and controls does not appear to be affected by selection bias related to community characteristics.

case-control studies; data collection; Hispanic Americans

Abbreviations: GUESS, Generally Useful Ethnic Search System; PPV, positive predictive value


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