Assessing the Accuracy of Parent Recall of the Hepatitis A Immunization Status of Their Children: Data Collection Issues in a Telephone Survey Combined with Provider Record Check

• Activity Number: 318
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 9, 2005 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Lisa Carley-Baxter*+ and Paul Levy and Anthony Fiore and Susan Twiddy
• Companies: RTI International and RTI International and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and RTI International
• Keywords: Telephone survey ; Hepatitis A Immunization ; Two-Phase Survey

Abstract

In an effort to determine whether a relatively inexpensive RDD telephone survey could provide accurate estimates of immunization coverage for Hepatitis A, we conducted such a survey of parents of children between 2.5 and 15 years of age and, for those parents who gave permission, contacted by mail their medical care providers to obtain vaccination records for the children. This two-phase survey presented several data collection challenges, including adapting the survey instrument used in the National Immunization Survey to older children and different immunizations and to protecting the confidentiality of the medical records obtained. The major challenge was in obtaining written consent from the parents to contact the health care providers even though more than 80% gave verbal consent during the telephone interview. In the preHIPPA era, verbal consent alone would be sufficient for contacting the providers. Obtaining provider reports also required more effort than originally planned as did meeting other IRB and HIPPA requirements surrounding collection of medical records for minors. This report focuses on these obstacles and the measures we took to overcome them.