American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 148, No. 10: 1007-1011
Copyright © 1998 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
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Controlled Trial of the Effect of Length, Incentives, and Follow-up Techniques on Response to a Mailed Questionnaire
From the Department of Epidemiology, School of Hygiene and Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD
Reprint requests to Sandra C. Hoffman, Training Center for Public Health Research, P.O. Box 2067, Hagerstown, MD 21742-2067.
Mailed questionnaires are an economical method of data collection for epidemiologic studies, but response tends to be lower than for telephone or personal interviews. As part of a follow-up study of volunteers who provided a brief health history and blood sample for a blood specimen bank in 1989, the authors conducted a controlled trial of the effect of length, incentives, and follow-up techniques on response to a mailed questionnaire. Interventions tested included variations on length of the questionnaire, effect of a monetary incentive, and effect of a postcard reminder versus a letter accompanied by a second questionnaire. Response was similar for the short (16-item, 4-page) and long (76-item, 16-page) questionnaire groups. The monetary incentive did not improve the frequency of response. The second mailing of a questionnaire was significantly better than a postcard reminder in improving responses (23% vs. 10%). It is important to systematically test marketing principles to determine which techniques are effective in increasing response to mailed questionnaires for epidemiologic studies. Am J Epidemiol 1998; 148:1007–11.
data collection; epidemiologic methods; health surveys; incentives; motivation
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