Engaging military couples in marital research: does requesting referrals from service members to recruit their spouses introduce sample bias?

Autor: McMaster HS; The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc., 6720A Rockledge Drive, Suite 100, Bethesda, MD, 20817, USA. hope.m.mcmaster.ctr@mail.mil., Stander VA; Naval Health Research Center, 140 Sylvester Road, San Diego, CA, 92106, USA., Williams CS; Abt Associates, Inc., Central Park West, Suite 210, 5001 South Miami Boulevard, Durham, NC, 27703, USA., Woodall KA; The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc., 6720A Rockledge Drive, Suite 100, Bethesda, MD, 20817, USA., O'Malley CA; Leidos, 11955 Freedom Drive, Reston, VA, 20190, USA., Bauer LM; The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc., 6720A Rockledge Drive, Suite 100, Bethesda, MD, 20817, USA., Davila EP; Emory University, 201 Dowman Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: BMC medical research methodology [BMC Med Res Methodol] 2018 Oct 24; Vol. 18 (1), pp. 114. Date of Electronic Publication: 2018 Oct 24.
DOI: 10.1186/s12874-018-0575-x
Abstrakt: Background: While enrolling dyads in research studies is not uncommon, there is limited literature on the utility of different recruitment strategies and the resulting selection biases. This paper examined two recruitment strategies used to enroll military couples in a longitudinal study, assessing the impact of both strategies on the representativeness of the final study sample.
Method: Descriptive and bivariate analyses were conducted to 1) identify characteristics associated with spouse referral, 2) compare response rates based on recruitment strategy and assess whether recruitment strategy modified correlates of response propensity among spouses, and 3) assess whether referred spouse characteristics differed from non-referred spouses in the final sample. The study sample consisted of married US service members with 2-5 years of military service as of October 2011 and their spouses.
Results: Service members who referred their spouses to participate in the Millennium Cohort Family Study were more likely to be male, have children, serve in the Army, and have combat deployment experience than those who did not refer their spouse. Nearly two-thirds (n = 5331, 64.9%) of referred spouses participated in the Family Study, compared with less than one-third (n = 3458, 29.5%) of directly contacted spouses. Spouse characteristics also differed significantly between recruitment groups.
Conclusions: Overall results suggest that minimal bias was introduced by using a referral recruitment methodology. Service members appeared to be more likely to refer their spouses if they perceived the research topic as relevant to their spouse, such that male service members with combat deployment experience were more likely to refer female spouses caring for multiple children. Referred spouses were significantly more likely to respond to the Millennium Cohort Family Study survey than those who were directly contacted; however, the overall success rate of using a referral strategy was less than recruiting spouses through direct contact. Differences between referred spouses and spouses contacted directly mirrored service member referring characteristics.
Databáze: MEDLINE
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