We read with great interest the article by Morton et al. (1) that addressed the alarming trend in declining participation rates for epidemiologic studies over recent years. The authors should be commended for addressing such an important issue.In addition to the possible reasons for decline listed by the authors, we would like to comment on another potential reason that may fall under their broad category of "societal factors" (1, p. 202). Mail and telephone marketing firms, along with various nonprofit organizations, have developed highly deceptive "survey marketing strategies" for eliciting purchases or donations. They are disguised as surveys and begin as such but, unlike standard market research surveys, they lead into either a request for a donation in support of a particular group or cause or questions about whether the respondent would like to purchase an alternative product or service. It is likely that use of these strategies negatively impacts the public and is one reason people are distrustful of surveys in general. Consequently, when contacted by various universities, government agencies, and other organizations that are conducting legitimate surveys for research purposes only, potential subjects refuse to participate. As scientists who depend on public participation for many of our research endeavors, we can only continue to support the use of surveys solely for research purposes and refuse to support "surveys" conducted for any other purpose
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