Bindman A B, Grumbach K, Keane D, Lurie N
Division of General Internal Medicine, San Francisco General Hospital.
Fam Med. 1993 Feb;25(2):114-9.
Public health policies often have disproportionate effects on the poor and other vulnerable groups. Standard survey techniques are often difficult to apply to these vulnerable populations, and many data bases systematically omit such individuals. The purpose of this paper is to review our experience in collecting primary survey data from public hospital, mentally ill, HIV-infected, and non-English-speaking patients. Important issues in conducting research on these populations include proper selection of subjects and comparison groups and difficulties involved in recruitment and enrollment of subjects. Maintaining longitudinal data on these populations is difficult and often requires tracking, secondary contacts, home visits and community outreach, and the use of organizations, institutions, and networks. Investigators must also pay careful attention to ethical issues involved in conducting research on vulnerable populations.
公共卫生政策往往对穷人和其他弱势群体产生不成比例的影响。标准的调查技术常常难以应用于这些弱势群体，而且许多数据库系统性地遗漏了这些个体。本文的目的是回顾我们在从公立医院患者、精神病患者、艾滋病毒感染者以及非英语患者中收集原始调查数据方面的经验。对这些人群进行研究时的重要问题包括受试者和对照组的恰当选择以及受试者招募和登记方面的困难。对这些人群维持纵向数据很困难，通常需要追踪、二次联系、家访和社区宣传，以及利用组织、机构和网络。研究人员还必须密切关注对弱势群体进行研究时涉及的伦理问题。
