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To collect reliable statistical data on domestic violence in Curaçao, we conducted a large-scale quantitative study (n = 816). To meet with the special needs of the population and topic, we designed a tailored mixed-mode survey to assess the prevalence of domestic violence in Curaçao and its health consequences. Great care was taken to reduce selective nonresponse and stimulate open and honest responses. We describe how we implemented and tailored a mixed-mode survey and report on its consequences for response and data quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of telephone surveys. Although extensive research has improved telephone survey methods considerably, in the new millennium, telephone interviewers are faced with new problems that threaten the validity of the method. The growing number of unsolicited calls may lessen the willingness to cooperate. The American Statistical Association mentions the near saturation calling conducted by telemarketers as one of the causes of declining survey cooperation rates. Telephone interviewers are more limited than face-to-face interviewers in the tools they have at their disposal to correct their erroneous script and to convince a potential respondent that this is a legitimate survey. It is noteworthy that telephone interviewers cannot take advantage of visual cues and nonverbal communication to evaluate the situation and persuade a potential respondent. A research was conducted to test a "not selling" introduction in standard random sampling household telephone surveys. In order to test the "not selling" introduction a series of 29 split-run experiments were conducted at different periods in 1999. This study revealed that the message "I am not selling anything" had a positive effect on the willingness to cooperate in a telephone survey.

This article reports a meta-analysis of 45 studies that explicitly compare the response obtained using a mail, telephone or face-to-face survey. The data analysis uses a generalized hierarchical linear model. Sampling procedure (e.g, local convenience sample, random general sample), saliency of topic, and research organization (university, government versus market research) had an effect on the response. On the average, the face-to-face condition achieved the highest completion rate (70.3%), the telephone survey the next highest (67.2%), and the mail survey the lowest (61.3%). There is a significant interaction with the year of publication:The response to face-to-face and telephone surveys is going down in the period covered by this analysis (1947 to 1992), but the response to mail surveys is going up slightly. We attribute this to the large amount of research on nonresponse problems with marl surveys, and recommend more research and development in this direction for face-to-face and telephone methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]