Cell Phone Number Lookup to Assist with National Health Research

Times are a-changing, and everyone must adapt. The recent rapid growth of cell phone-only households seriously threatens the accuracy of survey data. U.S. Public health officials and epidemiologists have been scrambling for new solutions. Partnering with cell phone number lookup databases to establish connections with cell phone users currently not on government radar seems inevitable.

The U.S. government's national health survey, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) uses the telephone to interview a sample of nearly half a million adults nationwide to measure population health habits. Interviewers used to call only home phones because nearly 98 percent of households had them, and the numbers were conveniently listed in public phone directories. Unfortunately, the National Center for Health Statistics can't continue using this surveying strategy. In the first half of 2008, 16% of American adults lived in cell phone-only households, which is 7% higher than in 2005, and the numbers are growing fast.

This year, the BRFSS is hoping to conduct at least 10% of interviews on cell phones. The main difficulty arises from cell phone numbers not being listed in public phone directories. It appears the BRFSS researchers will have to search private data bases and record the results of cell phone number lookups in the U.S. Public health directory.

Yet, is there a conflict of interest? Would BRFSS be violating consumer privacy laws? Do the laws that have been keeping telemarketers at bay - to a certain extent - also apply to government surveys? Even cell phone number lookups can't help with the fact that some cell phone users are reluctant to talk to surveyors because they pay for incoming calls. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press predicts it will take about nine calls to cell phone numbers to complete one survey, compared to what used to take five land-line calls.

We are witnessing history in the making, with new laws emerging, as technology evolves in the new millennium. It usually requires a lot of trial and error before new methods that work for everyone are identified, adapted and enforced. One thing's for sure: nothing will ever be the same.