{"doi":"10.3389/frph.2022.1052231","title":"Feasibility of mail-based biospecimen collection in an online preconception cohort study","abstract":"Background: Prospective cohort studies that enroll participants before conception are crucial for deepening scientific understanding of how the preconception environment influences reproductive outcomes. While web-based research methods provide efficient and effective strategies to collect questionnaire-based data, few of these studies incorporate biospecimen collection, which can enhance the validity of exposure assessment. There is limited literature on the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of collecting biospecimens in web-based preconception cohort studies. Methods: We evaluated the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of in-clinic and mail-based biospecimen collection in Pregnancy Study Online (PRESTO), a North American web-based preconception cohort study. Both members of the couple were eligible to participate if their conception attempt time was ≤3 months at enrollment. We invited study participants from the Boston, MA and Detroit, MI metropolitan areas to attend a study visit and provide urine and blood (hereafter \"in-clinic protocol\"). We invited all other participants to complete mail-based collection of urine and blood spots (hereafter \"mail-based protocol\"). We compared overall consent and protocol completion rates, demographic characteristics of those who consented and completed either of the protocols, and costs between mail-based and in-clinic protocols for biospecimen collection. Finally, we described logistical challenges pertaining to reliance on mail-based delivery of time-sensitive biospecimens compared with in-clinic methods. Results: During January 2022-July 2022, 69% of female participants (134/195) and 42% of male participants (31/74) consented to participate in the mail-based protocol. Consent rates for the in-clinic protocol were 39% for female participants (289/739 during March 2014-July 2022) and 25% for male participants (40/157 during March 2017-July 2022). Participants who consented to participate were generally of higher socioeconomic position than non-participants. Deviations from the protocol occurred more frequently within the mail-based protocol but were easily corrected. The cost per participant enrolled was similar across protocols (mail-based: $276.14 vs. in-clinic: $270.38). Conclusions: Our results indicate that mail-based collection of biospecimens may create opportunities to recruit a larger and more geographically diverse participant population at a comparable cost-per-participant enrolled to in-clinic methods.","journal":"Frontiers in Reproductive Health","year":2023,"id":352230,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9492,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":371912,"name":"Amelia K. Wesselink","orcid":"0000-0002-3929-4451","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1097756,"name":"Andrea S. Kuriyama","orcid":"0009-0004-7901-0611","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1098185,"name":"Alina Chaiyasarikul","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":371913,"name":"Elizabeth E. Hatch","orcid":"0000-0001-7901-3928","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":329832,"name":"Lauren A. Wise","orcid":"0000-0003-2138-3752","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1068993,"name":"Martha R. Koenig","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":26,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:12:50.107998Z","pmid":"36699143","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}