Design and Implementation of the Surveys of Women: Protocol for an Address-Based Sampling Multimodal Study.

BACKGROUND: Studies conducted in the United States such as the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) and the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) collect data on pregnancy intentions to aid in improving health education, services, and programs. PRAMS collects data from specific sites, and NSFG is a national household-based survey. Like NSFG, the Surveys of Women was designed to survey participants residing in households using an address-based sample and a multimode data collection approach. The Surveys of Women collects data from eligible participants in 9 states within the United States on contraception use, reproductive health, and pregnancy intentions. In this paper, we focus on the baseline data collection protocol, including sample design, data collection procedures, and data processing. We also include a brief discussion on the follow-up and endline survey methodologies. Our goal is to inform other researchers on methods to consider when fielding a household-level reproductive health survey. OBJECTIVE: The Surveys of Women was developed to support state-specific research and evaluation projects, with an overall goal of understanding contraceptive health practices among women aged 18-44 years. The project collects data from respondents in 9 different states (Arizona, Alabama, Delaware, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, and Wisconsin) over multiple rounds. METHODS: Households were selected at random using address-based sampling methods. This project includes a cross-sectional baseline survey, 2 or 3 follow-up surveys with an opt-in panel of respondents, and a cross-sectional endline survey. Each round of data collection uses a multimode design through the use of a programmed web survey and a formatted hard copy questionnaire. Participants from the randomly selected households access their personalized surveys through a web survey or mail in a hard copy questionnaire. To maximize responses, these surveys follow a rigorous schedule of various prompts bolstering the survey implementation design, and the participants received a modest monetary incentive. RESULTS: This is an ongoing project with results published separately by the evaluation teams involved with data analysis. CONCLUSIONS: The methods used in the first baseline survey informed modifications to the methods used in subsequent statewide surveys. Data collected from this project will provide insight into women's reproductive health, contraceptive use, and abortion attitudes in the 9 selected states. The long-term goal of the project is to use a data collection methodology that collects data from a representative sample of participants to assess changes in reproductive health behaviors over time. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/40675.

Sample Design and Estimation in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project: Round 3 (2015-2016).

OBJECTIVES: This article, and corresponding articles for the earlier rounds of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), provide the scientific underpinning for the statistical analysis of NSHAP data. The 2015-2016 round of data collection for NSHAP comprised the third wave of data collection for the original cohort born 1920-1947 (C1) and the first wave of data collection for a second cohort born 1948-1965 (C2). Here we describe (a) our protocol for reinterviewing C1; (b) our approach to the sample design for C2, including the frame construction, stratification, clustering, and within-household selection; and (c) the construction of cross-sectional weights for the entire 2015-2016 sample when analyzed at the individual level or when analyzed as a sample of cohabiting couples. We also provide guidance on computing design-based standard errors. METHODS: The sample for C2 was drawn independently of the C1 sample using the NORC U.S. National Sampling Frame. A probability sample of households containing at least one individual born 1948-1965 was drawn, and from these, each age-eligible individual was included together with their cohabiting spouse or partner (even if not age-eligible). This C2 sample was combined with the C1 sample to yield a sample representative of the U.S. population of adults born 1920-1965. RESULTS: Among C1, we conducted 2,409 interviews corresponding to a 91% conditional response rate (i.e., among previous respondents); the unconditional three-wave response rate for the original C1 sample was 71%. Among C2, we conducted 2,368 interviews corresponding to a response rate of 76%. DISCUSSION: Together C1 and C2 permit inference about the U.S. population of home-dwelling adults born from 1920 to 1965. In addition, three waves of data from C1 are now available, permitting longitudinal analyses of health outcomes and their determinants among older adults.

Design and Operation of the National Survey of Children's Health, 2011-2012.

Objectives This report presents the development, plan, and operation of the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children's Health, a module of the State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey, conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics. Funding was provided by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration. The survey was designed to produce national and state prevalence estimates of the physical and emotional health of children aged 0-17 years, as well as factors that may relate to child well-being including medical homes, family interactions, parental health, school and after-school experiences, and neighborhood characteristics.

Design and operation of the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs, 2009-2010.

OBJECTIVES: This report presents the development, plan, and operation of the 2009-2010 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs, a module of the State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey. The survey is conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. This survey was designed to produce national and state-specific prevalence estimates of children with special health care needs (CSHCN), to describe the types of services that they need and use, and to assess aspects of the system of care for CSHCN. METHODS: A random-digit-dial sample of households with children under age 18 years was constructed for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The sampling frame consisted of landline phone numbers and cellular(cell) phone numbers of households that reported a cell-phone-only or cell-phone-mainly status. Children in identified households were screened for special health care needs. If CSHCN were identified in the household, a detailed interview was conducted for one randomly selected child with special health care needs. Respondents were parents or guardians who knew about the children's health and health care. RESULTS: A total of 196,159 household screening interviews were completed from July 2009 through March 2011, resulting in 40,242 completed special-needs interviews, including 2,991 from cell-phone interviews. The weighted overall response rate was 43.7% for the landline sample, 15.2% for the cell-phone sample, and 25.5% overall.

Sample design, sample augmentation, and estimation for Wave 2 of the NSHAP.

OBJECTIVES: The sample for the second wave (2010) of National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) was designed to increase the scientific value of the Wave 1 (2005) data set by revisiting sample members 5 years after their initial interviews and augmenting this sample where possible. METHOD: There were 2 important innovations. First, the scope of the study was expanded by collecting data from coresident spouses or romantic partners. Second, to maximize the representativeness of the Wave 2 data, nonrespondents from Wave 1 were again approached for interview in the Wave 2 sample. RESULTS: The overall unconditional response rate for the Wave 2 panel was 74%; the conditional response rate of Wave 1 respondents was 89%; the conditional response rate of partners was 84%; and the conversion rate for Wave 1 nonrespondents was 26%. DISCUSSION: The inclusion of coresident partners enhanced the study by allowing the examination of how intimate, household relationships are related to health trajectories and by augmenting the size of the NSHAP sample size for this and future waves. The uncommon strategy of returning to Wave 1 nonrespondents reduced potential bias by ensuring that to the extent possible the whole of the original sample forms the basis for the field effort. NSHAP Wave 2 achieved its field objectives of consolidating the panel, recruiting their resident spouses or romantic partners, and converting a significant proportion of Wave 1 nonrespondents.

Assessing inter-rater reliability (IRR) of Tanner staging and orchidometer use with boys: a study from PROS.

BACKGROUND: Few studies have systematically assessed the reliability of pubertal markers; most are flawed by limited numbers of markers and ages studied. AIM: To conduct a comprehensive examination of inter-rater reliability in the assessment of boys' sexual maturity. SUBJECTS: Eight pairs of practitioners independently rated 79 consecutive boys aged 8-14 years. METHODS: Two raters in each of eight practices independently rated boys aged 8-14 years, presenting for physical examinations, on key pubertal markers: pubic hair and genitalia (both on 5-point Tanner scales), testicular size (via palpation and comparison with a four-bead Prader orchidometer), and axillary hair (via a three-point scale). RESULTS: Intraclass correlations assessing degree of inter-rater reliability for pubertal markers ranged from 0.61 to 0.94 (all significant at p < 0.001). Rater Kappas for signs of pubertal initiation ranged from 0.49 to 0.79. CONCLUSIONS: Practitioners are able to reliably stage key markers of male puberty and identify signs of pubertal initiation.

Testing descriptive hypotheses regarding sex differences in the development of conduct problems and delinquency.

Accurate descriptions of sex differences in the development of childhood conduct problems and adolescent delinquency will inform theories of their causes in fundamentally important ways. Using data on 4,572 offspring of a national sample of women, we tested descriptive hypotheses regarding sex differences. As predicted, the magnitude of sex differences varied with age, suggesting that multiple processes differentially influence levels of these behaviors in females and males across development. During childhood, boys scored lower on measures of cognitive ability and exhibited lower sociability and compliance and greater hyperactivity, oppositional behavior, and conduct problems. Most of these variables were associated with childhood conduct problems and adolescent delinquency equally in females and males, but maternal delinquency and early childhood sociability were correlated more strongly with childhood conduct problems in males and childhood compliance predicted adolescent delinquency more strongly in females. Both sexes exhibited both childhood-onset and adolescent-onset trajectories of delinquency. Although more males followed a childhood-onset trajectory, there were few sex differences in the early childhood risk correlates of either delinquency trajectory.

Patient visits to a national practice-based research network: comparing pediatric research in office settings with the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

OBJECTIVE: Our objective with this study was to assess the extent to which patients who are seen by practitioners in Pediatric Research in Office Settings, a national primary care practice-based research network, are representative of those who are seen in ambulatory office-based pediatric primary care in the United States. METHODS: Pediatric Research in Office Settings patient data were collected from the offices of 57 randomly selected network practitioners as part of an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded effort to describe primary care visits and replicate the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey in primary care practice-based research networks. These data were from 1706 randomly selected pediatric patient visits that occurred between March and June 2002. National comparison data were 948 randomly selected pediatric patient visits that occurred between March and June 2000 in the offices of the 33 primary care pediatric practitioners who had participated in the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. The groups were compared on patient demographics (age, gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, as represented by Medicaid status), visit characteristics (percentages of patients referred, practitioner designation of visit as acute versus nonacute, and continuity of care), the top patient/parent-articulated reasons for visit, and the top practitioner diagnoses. RESULTS: Comparisons revealed substantial similarities between Pediatric Research in Office Settings and national data, including gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and visit characteristics. Differences were noted for age and race, with Pediatric Research in Office Settings children approximately 1 year older and comprising a significantly lower proportion of black patients than their National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey counterparts. Although the top 6 reasons that were articulated by parents for outpatient visits in the 2 groups were remarkably similar in rank order and proportions, there were overall differences, mostly attributable to a larger number of the "other" category in the Pediatric Research in Office Settings cases. There were no significant differences among the top 5 practitioner visit diagnoses between the Pediatric Research in Office Settings and National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey data. CONCLUSIONS: The Pediatric Research in Office Settings patient population is reasonably representative of patients who are seen in US ambulatory office-based pediatric primary care practices; therefore, the Pediatric Research in Office Settings is an appropriate laboratory for studies of care in such settings.