American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 129, No. 5: 1052-1061
Copyright © 1989 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
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A COMPARISON OF RESPONSE RATE, DATA QUALITY, AND COST IN THE COLLECTION OF DATA ON SEXUAL HISTORY AND PERSONAL BEHAVIORS
MAIL SURVEY APPROACHES AND IN-PERSON INTERVIEW
1American Institutes for Research, GHI/Physician Services, 2829 University Avenue S.E. Minneapolis, MN 55414
2School of Nursing and College of Pharmacy, University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN.
3School of Public Health, University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN
4School of Medicine, University of Minnesota Duluth, MN
Reprint requests to Dr. Rolnick at this address
The authors examined differences in rate of response, data quality, and cost between mail approaches and in-person interview in the collection of data on sexual history and personal behaviors. A sample of women from a midwestern United States university (n = 342) was identified from health service medical records as having been seen for a sexually transmitted disease (cases) or a contraceptive visit (controls) during the latter half of 1985. The women were randomly assigned to one of three data collection strategies. A total of 268 subjects (78%) participated. Results indicated no differences in validity by method of data collection or by case-control status but there were significant differences in completeness, cost, and response rates. In-person interviews resulted in more complete data than mail approaches, although all instruments had low proportions of missing data (0.001–0.006). Response rate differences were not found when data collection methodologies were compared (75–82%) but were found in case-control analyses. Cases were consistently less likely to participate and significantly less likely to respond by mail (p <0.05). The cost of the in-person interview was approximately four times that of the mail survey for the data collection. Implications of the case-control response rate difference suggest that mail methodologies, although low in cost, may introduce sampling bias in studies of sexually transmitted diseases.
data collection; sex behavior
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