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

Area of Science:

• Reproductive Health
• Survey Methodology
• Public Health

Background:

• Existing US surveys like NSFG and PRAMS collect data on pregnancy intentions.
• PRAMS data is site-specific, while NSFG is a national household survey.
• The Surveys of Women utilizes an address-based sample and multimode data collection for household surveys.

Purpose of the Study:

• To understand contraceptive health practices among women aged 18-44 years.
• To support state-specific research and evaluation projects.
• To collect data across 9 states over multiple survey rounds.

Main Methods:

• Random household selection using address-based sampling.
• Multimode data collection: programmed web survey and hard copy questionnaire.
• Incentives and rigorous prompting schedule to maximize response rates.

Main Results:

• This is an ongoing project; results are published separately.
• Baseline survey methods informed modifications for subsequent statewide surveys.
• Data will provide insights into reproductive health, contraceptive use, and abortion attitudes.

Conclusions:

• The project's methodology is adaptable for future reproductive health surveys.
• Collected data will assess changes in reproductive health behaviors over time.
• The long-term goal is to establish a data collection methodology for representative samples.