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Costs and problems of finding women exposed to a hazardous drug
M Stevens1, B Smith, E R Greenberg
1Department of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Hanover, NH.
We recorded the costs of identifying, tracing, and contacting women who had taken diethylstilbestrol (DES) during pregnancy. Among 6,143 women who delivered a live birth between 1940 and 1960 at this medical center there were 271 who were DES exposed. An additional 271 unexposed women were selected as a comparison group for a study of the late effects of DES. The costs of locating the women were initially low but rose steeply as progressively more complicated tracing methods were used. Geographic mobility, changes in marital status, and the scanty identifying information recorded in women's medical records complicated the search and added to the costs. Tracing would be easier and less expensive if standard identifying information, including maiden name, social security number, and date of birth, were included in the medical records for all women.
We recorded the costs of identifying, tracing, and contacting women who had taken diethylstilbestrol (DES) during pregnancy. Among 6,143 women who delivered a live birth between 1940 and 1960 at this medical center there were 271 who were DES exposed. An additional 271 unexposed women were selected as a comparison group for a study of the late effects of DES. The costs of locating the women were initially low but rose steeply as progressively more complicated tracing methods were used. Geographic mobility, changes in marital status, and the scanty identifying information recorded in women's medical records complicated the search and added to the costs. Tracing would be easier and less expensive if standard identifying information, including maiden name, social security number, and date of birth, were included in the medical records for all women.