International Journal of Epidemiology 2000;29:793-798
© International Epidemiological Association 2000
Characteristics of respondents and non-respondents from a case-control study of breast cancer in younger women
a Epidemiology & Biostatistics Program, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA.
b Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA. Formerly at Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA.
c Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, USA.
d Division of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. Formerly at Division of Epidemiology, Columbia University School of Public Health, USA.
e Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, USA.
Reprint requests to: Patricia Madigan, US National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Epidemiology & Genetics, Environmental Epidemiology Branch, 6120 Executive Blvd, EPS—MSC 7234, Bethesda, MD 20852–7234, USA.
Background This study assessed the nature of potential biases by comparing respondents with non-respondents from a case-control study of breast cancer in younger women.
Methods The case-control study was conducted in three regions in the US: Atlanta GA, Seattle/Puget Sound WA, and central New Jersey. An abbreviated interview or mailed questionnaire was completed by willing non-respondents, most of whom had refused participation in the main study.
Results Respondents and non-respondents appeared similar with respect to age, race, relative weight, smoking, family history of breast cancer, number of births, age at first birth, and several dietary items. Compared to non-respondents, case and control respondents were of shorter stature, and reported less frequent consumption of doughnuts/pastries. Respondent cases, compared with non-respondent cases, were more highly educated and more likely to have consumed alcohol regularly; similar but not statistically significant tendencies were observed for controls. Respondent cases experienced menarche earlier than non-respondents. Respondent controls were more likely to have used oral contraceptives than non-respondents; a similar but not statistically significant tendency was observed in cases. Comparisons of crude and simulated relative risks using available non-respondents' data generally showed a low impact of non-response on relative risks in this study.
Conclusions Our results suggest that non-response would not greatly affect relative risk estimates in this study, except possibly regarding height. However, we were limited by the numbers of informative non-respondents and the amount of data collected. Collecting similar information in future studies would be useful, especially since varying methods used to encourage participation may lead to differences in respondents' characteristics.
Keywords Breast neoplasms, epidemiologic study, selection bias, non-response, oral contraceptives, diet, reproductive history, alcohol drinking
Accepted 7 February 2000
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