SELECTION OF NEIGHBORHOOD CONTROLS FOR A STUDY OF CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE

controls for a study of coronary artery disease. Am J Epidemiol 1989; 129:407-14. This report describes the selection process for a neighborhood control group recruited between February 1985 and July 1986 to augment a hospital-based case-control study Investigating the relation of traditional and nontradra'onal risk factors to coronary artery atherosclerosis. A total of 219 cases with angiograph-Ically defined coronary artery disease residing within a 60-mi (96-km) radius of Winston-Salem, NC, were assigned to surveyors to be matched. Thirty-seven per cent of the study population were rural, 92 % were white, 58 % were male, and 52 % were older than 50 years of age. One hundred and eighty-seven controls were age- ( ± five years), sex-, and race-matched pairwlse to cases. After locating the residence of the case, the surveyor systematically visited neighboring house-holds to ascertain eligibility status of residents. To achieve a match, a maximum of three visits was made to the neighborhood; up to 25 households were surveyed per visit Refusal rate was less than 5 % of eligible matches. Young white urban males were the easiest to match, while rural females, especially older persons