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Feasibility of comparing risk profiles for cervical cancer between participants and nonparticipants in a screening
A Kant1, I Palm, H van den Hoogen
1Department of Pathology, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Objective:
Feasibility of comparing risk profiles by questionnaire of participants and nonparticipants in a cervical screening programme: does asking information on sexual behaviour by means of a questionnaire lead to high non-response? is the non-response selective (related to participation in the screening) and if so how can we limit this?
Design:
A postal survey on risk factors for cervical cancer, including sexual behaviour, in a group of participants and nonparticipants.
Setting:
Two villages, Wijchen and Beuningen, situated near Nijmegen in The Netherlands.
Subjects:
139 participants and 99 nonparticipants in the national screening programme in 1989 or 1990.
Results:
Overall, the response to the questionnaire was high: 83%. Collecting the questionnaire by asking the women to return it by mail in a stamped addressed envelope and one reminder by phone showed a response rate of 79%. This response was selective: 93% of the participants in the screening responded and 61% of the nonparticipants. Collecting them personally showed an extremely high response of 96% which was not selective. Only 3 respondents did not answer the questions about sexual behaviour.
Main Conclusion:
Obtaining information on sexual behaviour by questionnaire is feasible. Selective response can be limited by an extremely high response rate, which can be achieved by collecting the questionnaires personally.