Evaluation of a mass mailing recruitment strategy to obtain a community sample of women for a clinical trial of an incontinence prevention intervention.

OBJECTIVES: Questions exist about using mass mailings to recruit representative samples to participate in clinical trials. The MESA Prevention Study (Medical, Epidemiologic and Social Aspects of Aging), a randomized controlled clinical trial to prevent urinary incontinence (UI), utilized a mass mailing recruitment procedure to recruit a representative sample of women to participate in a behavioral modification program. This paper seeks to expand the literature of mass mailing recruitment strategies for prevention studies by describing the procedures used to recruit healthy, continent, post-menopausal women aged 55-80 years.
METHODS: Sociodemographic data collected from recruited subjects is compared with on-line national census data to evaluate the representativeness of the sample recruited from a purchased mailing list.
RESULTS: The mass mailing procedure resulted in 3.3% positive response. Of those that returned a positive response, 37.6% were deemed eligible at first screening. Comparisons of study demographic data with state and county census data indicate that the sample obtained was representative of the communities.
CONCLUSIONS: The mass mailing strategy was an effective means of recruiting a representative sample of women, aged 55-80. Short falls and recommendations for successful community sample recruitment strategies for clinical trials in older adult women are elaborated upon.