Feasibility of self-collection of fecal specimens by randomly sampled women for health-related studies of the gut microbiome.

Background: The field of microbiome research is growing rapidly. We developed a method for self-collection of fecal specimens that can be used in population-based studies of the gut microbiome. We conducted a pilot study to test the feasibility of our methods among a random sample of healthy, postmenopausal women who are members of Kaiser Permanente Colorado (KPCO).