O32 Leveraging Every Door Direct Mail for Remote Recruitment of a Rural Study Sample: Response Rate and Representativeness

Abstract

Background Travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic forced researchers to recruit remotely, further challenging the recruitment of “hard-to-reach” populations, such as rural communities. Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) is a service of the USPS in which mail is sent to all ‘postal customers’ in a designated region. While relatively underexplored as a research tool, 1 study reported similar response rates to addressed survey mailings with lower cost and potentially lower demographic bias. Objective To evaluate the utility of EDDM as a tool for recruiting a representative sample of rural households in Appalachia Ohio. Study Design, Setting, Participants As part of a larger effort to evaluate community resource utilization in relation to diet, health and food security, a study recruitment postcard was sent via EDDM to all residential addresses (n = 31,201) within an 18 zip code region in Southeastern OH in June 2020. Adult residents were invited to complete a survey online via QR code or short link or to call for a mailed survey. Measurable Outcome/Analysis Respondent demographic characteristics were generated using SPSS and compared with the region's 2019 U.S. Census Bureau statistics. Results A total of 724 households completed the survey, reflecting a response rate lower than estimates for addressed mailings (2.3% vs 6%). Compared to census data, a greater proportion of respondents were female (68% vs 51%), and highly educated (60% vs 36% college graduates); a smaller proportion were non-Hispanic (90% vs 98%), White (88% vs 92%), had ≥1 child in the household (23% vs 28%), and a household income Conclusion EDDM was a viable method for remote recruitment of a rural sample. Further work is needed to explore its efficacy in recruiting representative samples, and studies to inform best practices for its use are warranted. Funding NIH, The Ohio State University's Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation (InFACT), a Discovery Themes program (learn more at discovery.osu.edu/infact); Award Number UL1TR002733 National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (#5591); and, the Clinical Research Center/Center for Clinical Research Management of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and The Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus, Ohio. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, the National Institutes of Health, or The Ohio State University.