Conducting epidemiologic research in a minority community: Methodological considerations

Researchers have noted the difficulties of conducting surveys, one of the most widely used techniques for collecting social science data, in minority communities. These difficulties include low response rates, interviewer bias, and the development of adequate sampling strategies to tap diverse segments within minority communities and locate specific segments of the population, such as male respondents. Efforts to minimize these difficulties in the implementation of an epidemiological, field-based survey of 1,018 Black American adults are described.