Epidemiologic Field Methods in Psychiatry: The NIMH Epidemiologic Catchment Area Program

Epidemiologic Field Methods in Psychiatry: The NIMH Epidemiologic Catchment Area Program focuses on the methodology employed in the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) Program. The selection first elaborates on the historical context, major objectives, and study design and sampling the household population. Topics include the development of the ECA program, DIS instrument, program design, general issues in sampling community resident populations, household and respondent eligibility, household and respondent selection, weighting, and variance estimation. The manuscript then examines institutional survey and the characteristics, training, and field work of interviewers. Discussions focus on the changing nature of institutions, value of the institutional component, institutions included in institutional stratum, interviewer recruitment and selection, demographic characteristic of interviewers, and field work. The publication ponders on nonresponse and nonresponse bias in the ECA surveys, data preparation, and proxy interview, as well as quality of proxy data, item nonresponse, editing and coding, data entry and data cleaning, understanding nonresponse, and assessment of evidence for nonresponse bias. The selection is a valuable source of information for psychiatrists and readers interested in the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) Program.