The increasing diversity of population of the United States presents many challenges to conducting health research that is representative and informative. Dispersion and accessibility issues can increase logistical costs; populations for which it is difficult to obtain adequate sample size are also likely to be expensive to study. Hence, even if it is technically feasible to study a small population, it may not be easy to obtain the funding to do so. In order to address the issues associated with improving health research of small populations, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop in January 2018. Participants considered ways of addressing the challenges of conducting epidemiological studies or intervention research with small population groups, including alternative study designs, innovative methodologies for data collection, and innovative statistical techniques for analysis.

Table of Contents


Front Matter
1 Introduction and Background
2 What Do We Mean by "Small Populations"?
3 Challenges in Using Available Data for Small Population Health Research
4 Techniques Used in Survey Research to Identify and Find Small Populations for Health Research
5 New and Emerging Designs for Intervention Studies
6 Recruitment, Retention, and Collection of Data
7 Analysis Techniques for Small Population Research
8 Closing Remarks
Appendix A: Agenda and List of Participants
Appendix B: Biographical Sketches of Steering Committee and Speakers
Committee on National Statistics