Challenges in recruitment to an epidemiological study of young Australian Women: The Grollo-Ruzzene Foundation Young Women’s Health Study

Background

The Grollo-Ruzzene Foundation Young Women’s Study is being undertaken to document the physical and psychological wellbeing of young Australian women, including the prevalence of menstrual disorders such as polycystic ovarian syndrome. Getting a national representative of the population sampled is an important goal to achieve external validity.

Postal recruitment of young women to questionnaire based surveys has resulted in low response rates reflecting changes in personal communication from traditional home postal address and directory listed landline telephone numbers to technology based personal communication through unlisted mobile phone numbers, email and social media, web based recruitment has been identified as more suited to a young population.

Methods

Women, aged 18-39 years, were invited by email to complete an online questionnaire and, if not using systemic hormones (such as the contraceptive pill), pregnant or breast feeding, to provide a blood sample. Recruitment was through Roy Morgan Research based on the Australian electoral role, and Survey Sampling International which is a database with opt-in recruitment via flyers, banners, invitations and partnerships.

Results

A total of 94,546 email invitations were sent to women living in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Follow up of 1,000 women who had not responded by text messages recruited another 15 women. Direct telephoning resulted in another 516 completed questionnaires from a further 3,614 randomly selected non responders. In all 6,986 completed the questionnaire and the blood samples were provided by 761 (20.6%) of 3,680 eligible participants.

The study sample is similar to Australian women within the target age range captured by the Australian Census for their state of residence in terms of age, distribution, education, relationship status, employment and occupation.

Conclusion

Recruitment, by predominantly electronic means, has achieved large, representative study sample of young women recruited from the eastern states of Australia.

Implications for public health

Recruitment of a representative study sample can be achieved in the absence of a high response rate.