Screening for Pregnancy Status in a Population-Based Sample: Characteristics Associated with Item Nonresponse

• Published in: Maternal and child health journal Vol. 23; no. 3; pp. 316 - 324
• Main Authors: Hughes, Suzanne C., Hogue, Carol J., Clark, Melissa A., Graber, Jessica E., Eaker, Elaine D., Herring, Amy H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.03.2019; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Analysis; Choice Behavior; Cohort Studies; Cross-Sectional Studies; Epidemiology; Female; Gynecology; Health aspects; Health screening; Households; Humans; Logistic Models; Logistic regression; Mass Screening - methods; Mass Screening - standards; Mass Screening - statistics & numerical data; Maternal and Child Health; Medical screening; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Missing data; Pediatrics; Population Economics; Population-based studies; Pregnancy; Pregnant women; Public Health; Research Subjects - psychology; Research Subjects - statistics & numerical data; Sociology; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires - standards; Surveys and Questionnaires - statistics & numerical data; United States; Womens health; United States; Prenatal; Missing data; National Children’s Study; Nonresponse; Children; Item nonresponse; Pregnancy screener; Recruitment
• DOI: 10.1007/s10995-018-2665-0
• ISSN: 1092-7875

Objectives Population-based recruitment of a cohort of women who are currently pregnant or who may become pregnant in a given timeframe presents challenges unique to identifying pregnancy status or the likelihood of future pregnancy. Little is known about the performance of individual eligibility items on pregnancy screeners although they are critical to participant recruitment. This paper examined the patterns and respondent characteristics of key pregnancy screener items used in a large national study. Methods Cross-sectional analyses were conducted. Descriptive statistics and multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine nonresponse patterns to three questions (currently pregnant, trying to get pregnant and able to get pregnant). The questions were asked of 50,529 women in 17 locations across the US, as part of eligibility screening for the National Children’s Study Vanguard Study household-based recruitment. Results Most respondents were willing to provide information about current pregnancy, trying, and able to get pregnant: 99.3% of respondents answered all three questions and 97.4% provided meaningful answers. Nonresponse ranged from 0.3 to 2.5% for individual items. Multivariable logistic regression results identified small but statistically significant differences in nonresponse by respondent age, marital status, race/ethnicity-language, and household-based recruitment group. Conclusions for Practice The high levels of response to pregnancy-related items are impressive considering that the eligibility questions were fairly sensitive, were administered at households, and were not part of a respondent-initiated encounter.