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Effect of survey instrument on participation in a follow-up study: a randomization study of a mailed questionnaire versus a computer-assisted telephone interview
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Effect of survey instrument on participation in a follow-up study: a randomization study of a mailed questionnaire versus a computer-assisted telephone interview

Carissa M Rocheleau, Paul A Romitti, Stacey Hockett Sherlock, Wayne T Sanderson, Erin M Bell and Charlotte Druschel
BMC public health, Vol.12(1), pp.579-579
07/31/2012
DOI: 10.1186/1471-2458-12-579
PMCID: PMC3506531
PMID: 22849754
url
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-579View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Many epidemiological and public health surveys report increasing difficulty obtaining high participation rates. We conducted a pilot follow-up study to determine whether a mailed or telephone survey would better facilitate data collection in a subset of respondents to an earlier telephone survey conducted as part of the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. We randomly assigned 392 eligible mothers to receive a self-administered, mailed questionnaire (MQ) or a computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) using similar recruitment protocols. If mothers gave permission to contact the fathers, fathers were recruited to complete the same instrument (MQ or CATI) as mothers. Mothers contacted for the MQ, within all demographic strata examined, were more likely to participate than those contacted for the CATI (86.6% vs. 70.6%). The median response time for mothers completing the MQ was 17 days, compared to 29 days for mothers completing the CATI. Mothers completing the MQ also required fewer reminder calls or letters to finish participation versus those assigned to the CATI (median 3 versus 6), though they were less likely to give permission to contact the father (75.0% vs. 85.8%). Fathers contacted for the MQ, however, had higher participation compared to fathers contacted for the CATI (85.2% vs. 54.5%). Fathers recruited to the MQ also had a shorter response time (median 17 days) and required fewer reminder calls and letters (median 3 reminders) than those completing the CATI (medians 28 days and 6 reminders). We concluded that offering a MQ substantially improved participation rates and reduced recruitment effort compared to a CATI in this study. While a CATI has the advantage of being able to clarify answers to complex questions or eligibility requirements, our experience suggests that a MQ might be a good survey option for some studies.
 Computers Postal Service Follow-Up Studies Telephone Humans Male Mothers - statistics & numerical data Fathers - statistics & numerical data Young Adult Pilot Projects Adult Female Surveys and Questionnaires Community Participation - statistics & numerical data Data Collection - instrumentation

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