Biological specimens for community-based surveillance studies: Method of recruitment matters

Biological specimens for community-based surveillance studies: Method of recruitment matters

Blog Article

Studies requiring the collection of biological specimens are often difficult to perform and costly.We compare face-to-face and telephone interviews to determine which is more effective for return of self-collected rectal swabs from subjects living in rural and semi-rural areas of Ontario, Canada.People interviewed face-to-face in 2006-2007 were asked to provide a rectal swab while the interviewer waited.

Those interviewed by telephone were sent a package and asked to return the swab by mail, with one follow-up reminder call.Telephone FLATS interviewing resulted in a higher response rate for the completion of household and individual-level questionnaires.However, face-to-face interviews resulted in a significantly higher proportion of interviewees who returned swabs making the participation rate higher for this mode of contact (33.

7 versus 25.0 percent).Using multivariable logistic regression, higher rates of rectal swab return were associated with face-to-face interviewing while adjusting for the impact of household size and respondent age and MCT sex.

For studies requiring the submission of intimate biological samples, face-to-face interviews can be expected to provide a higher rate of return than telephone interviews.