The effects of tracking responses and the day of mailing on physician survey response rate: three randomized trials

Elie A Akl; Swarna Gaddam; Reem Mustafa; Mark C Wilson; Andrew Symons; Ann Grifasi; Denise McGuigan; Holger J Schünemann

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016942

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The effects of tracking responses and the day of mailing on physician survey response rate: three randomized trials

Journal article

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The effects of tracking responses and the day of mailing on physician survey response rate: three randomized trials

Elie A Akl, Swarna Gaddam, Reem Mustafa, Mark C Wilson, Andrew Symons, Ann Grifasi, Denise McGuigan and Holger J Schünemann

PloS one, Vol.6(2), pp.e16942-e16942

02/23/2011

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016942

PMCID: PMC3044144

PMID: 21373197

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Abstract

The response rates to physician postal surveys remain modest. The primary objective of this study was to assess the effect of tracking responses on physician survey response rate (i.e., determining whether each potential participant has responded or not). A secondary objective was to assess the effects of day of mailing (Monday vs. Friday) on physician survey response rate. We conducted 3 randomized controlled trials. The first 2 trials had a 2 x 2 factorial design and tested the effect of day of mailing (Monday vs. Friday) and of tracking vs. no tracking responses. The third trial tested the effect of day of mailing (Monday vs. Friday). We meta-analyzed these 3 trials using a random effects model. The total number of participants in the 3 trials was 1339. The response rate with tracked mailing was not statistically different from that with non-tracked mailing by the time of the first reminder (RR = 1.01 95% CI 0.84, 1.22; I² = 0%). There was a trend towards lower response rate with tracked mailing by the time of the second reminder (RR = 0.91; 95% CI 0.78, 1.06; I² = 0%). The response rate with mailing on Mondays was not statistically different from that with Friday mailing by the time of first reminder (RR = 1.01; 95% CI 0.87, 1.17; I² = 0%), and by the time of the 2(nd) reminder (RR = 1.08; 95% CI 0.84, 1.39; I² = 77%). Tracking response may negatively affect physicians' response rate. The day of mailing does not appear to affect physicians' response rate.

Data Collection - statistics & numerical data

Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic - statistics & numerical data

Follow-Up Studies

Time Factors

Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic - methods

Humans

Postal Service - utilization

Postal Service - statistics & numerical data

Surveys and Questionnaires

Physicians - statistics & numerical data

Details

Title: Subtitle: The effects of tracking responses and the day of mailing on physician survey response rate: three randomized trials
Creators: Elie A Akl - Department of Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, United States of America. elieakl@buffalo.edu
Swarna Gaddam
Reem Mustafa
Mark C Wilson
Andrew Symons
Ann Grifasi
Denise McGuigan
Holger J Schünemann
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: PloS one, Vol.6(2), pp.e16942-e16942
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016942
PMID: 21373197
PMCID: PMC3044144
NLM abbreviation: PLoS One
ISSN: 1932-6203
eISSN: 1932-6203
Publisher: Public Library of Science
Language: English
Date published: 02/23/2011
Academic Unit: General Internal Medicine; Medicine Administration; Internal Medicine
Record Identifier: 9984094327702771

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