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

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. 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. 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. 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.