Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA.
Womens Health Issues. 2011 Sep-Oct;21(5):345-52. doi: 10.1016/j.whi.2011.03.003. Epub 2011 Jun 23.
Sexual minority women, defined as having a lesbian or bisexual identity or reporting a preference for a female partner, are not considered by cancer surveillance. This study assesses the representativeness of sexual minority breast cancer survivors, defined as having a lesbian or bisexual identity or reporting a preference for a female partner, who were recruited into a convenience sample compared with a population-based registry sample of sexual minority breast cancer survivors.
Long-term survivors of non-metastatic breast cancer who self-reported as sexual minority were recruited from a cancer registry and subsequently from the community using convenience recruitment methods. Sexual minority breast cancer survivors who screened eligible participated in a telephone survey about their quality of life and factors associated therewith.
Participants in the convenience sample were similar to the registry-based sample with respect to adjustment to cancer, physical health, trust in physician, coping, social support, and sexual minority experiences. Compared with the convenience sample, breast cancer survivors in the registry sample were more likely married, more educated, diagnosed more recently, at an earlier stage of cancer, and more likely treated with breast-conserving surgery; they differed on adjuvant therapies.
Because sexual minority breast cancer survivors who volunteered for the community-based sample shared most characteristics of the sample recruited from the cancer registry, we concluded that the community sample had comparable representational quality. In the absence of cancer surveillance of sexual minorities, thoughtful convenience recruitment methods provide good representational quality convenience samples.
性少数群体女性被定义为具有同性恋或双性恋身份或报告对女性伴侣的偏好，她们不被癌症监测所考虑。本研究评估了便利样本中招募的性少数群体乳腺癌幸存者的代表性，这些幸存者被定义为具有同性恋或双性恋身份或报告对女性伴侣的偏好，与性少数群体乳腺癌幸存者的基于人群的登记样本进行比较。
长期患有非转移性乳腺癌的自我报告为性少数群体的幸存者从癌症登记处招募，并随后通过便利招募方法从社区招募。符合筛选条件的性少数群体乳腺癌幸存者参加了一项关于其生活质量及其相关因素的电话调查。
便利样本中的参与者在适应癌症、身体健康、对医生的信任、应对方式、社会支持和性少数群体经历方面与基于登记处的样本相似。与便利样本相比，登记处样本中的乳腺癌幸存者更有可能已婚、受过更高的教育、最近被诊断出患有癌症、处于癌症的早期阶段，并且更有可能接受保乳手术治疗；他们在辅助治疗方面存在差异。
由于自愿参加社区样本的性少数群体乳腺癌幸存者与从癌症登记处招募的样本具有大多数特征，我们得出结论，社区样本具有相当的代表性质量。在没有对性少数群体进行癌症监测的情况下，精心设计的便利招募方法提供了具有良好代表性质量的便利样本。
