Multilevel Provider-Based Sampling for Recruitment of Pregnant Women and Mother-Newborn Dyads.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

In 2010, the National Children's Study launched 3 alternative recruitment methods to test possible improvements in efficiency compared with traditional household-based recruitment and participant enrollment. In 2012, a fourth method, provider-based sampling (PBS), tested a probability-based sampling of prenatal provider locations supplemented by a second cohort of neonates born at a convenience sample of maternity hospitals.

Methods

From a sampling frame of 472 prenatal care provider locations and 59 maternity hospitals, 49 provider and 7 hospital locations within or just outside 3 counties participated in study recruitment. During first prenatal care visits or immediately postdelivery at these locations, face-to-face contact was used to screen and recruit eligible women.

Results

Of 1450 screened women, 1270 were eligible. Consent rates at prenatal provider locations (62%-74% by county) were similar to those at birth locations (64%-77% by county). During 6 field months, 3 study centers enrolled a total prenatal cohort of 530 women (the majority in the first trimester) and during 2 months enrolled a birth cohort of an additional 320 mother-newborn dyads. As personnel became experienced in the field, the time required to enroll a woman in the prenatal cohort declined from up to 200 hours to 50 to 100 hours per woman recruited.

Conclusions

We demonstrated that PBS was feasible and operationally efficient in recruiting a representative cohort of newborns from 3 diverse US counties. Our findings suggest that PBS is a practical approach to recruit large pregnancy and birth cohorts across the United States.

SUBMITTER: McLaughlin TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4878109 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature