American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on June 22, 2005
American Journal of Epidemiology 2005 162(3):261-266; doi:10.1093/aje/kwi194
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PRACTICE OF EPIDEMIOLOGY |
Increasing Response to Mailed Questionnaires by Including a Pencil/Pen
1 Cancer Prevention Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA
2 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
3 Department of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH
Correspondence to Dr. Emily White, Cancer Prevention Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Avenue North, P.O. Box 19024, Seattle, WA 98109 (e-mail: ewhite{at}fhcrc.org).
Nonmonetary incentives lead to small increases in response rates to mailed questionnaires. However, inclusion of a pen or pencil, which may be a facilitating factor as well as a reward, has not been shown to improve response to health surveys in prior trials. In 2001 and 2002, the authors conducted two US trials in which a study-logo pen or pencil was randomly included in a second questionnaire mailed to nonresponders to a first mailing. In the first study, of 10,686 nonresponders to a cohort recruitment mailing, response to the second mailing was 55% with inclusion of a pen versus 40% without one (p < 0.001). In the second study, of 141 nonresponders to a pilot follow-up survey conducted 2 years after entry into a cohort, response was 43% with inclusion of a pencil versus 24% without one (p = 0.02). This 15–19 percentage point increase for mailing 2 translated to a 5–6 percentage point increase after the two mailings combined. In a simulated study of three mailings based on these studies, the overall response rate increased by 4 percentage points at no added cost through inclusion of a pencil in the second mailing. The additional cost of the pencil was compensated for by the reduced number of nonrespondents sent packets at the third mailing. This study supports including a study-logo pen or pencil in a second questionnaire mailing to nonrespondents as a cost-effective method of increasing response rates.
data collection; epidemiologic methods; questionnaires
Abbreviations: NHWH, New Hampshire Women for Health; VITAL, VITamins And Lifestyle
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  A. D. Steffen, L. N. Kolonel, A. M. Nomura, F. S. Nagamine, K. R. Monroe, and L. R. Wilkens The Effect of Multiple Mailings on Recruitment: The Multiethnic Cohort Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev., February 1, 2008; 17(2): 447 - 454. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 P. Sacco RE: "INCREASING RESPONSE TO MAILED QUESTIONNAIRES BY INCLUDING A PENCIL/PEN" Am. J. Epidemiol., August 1, 2006; 164(3): 296 - 296. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
E. White and A. S. Kolar TWO AUTHORS REPLY Am. J. Epidemiol., August 1, 2006; 164(3): 296 - 296. [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|