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Objective: This study examines the effectiveness and costs of follow-up phone calls in improving response rates to a community survey. Methods: Non-responders to a postal survey were randomly allocated to receive a phone call or no phone call. The resources used for the development and implementation of the survey were documented. The response rates and cost per level of follow-up contact examined. Results: Follow-up phone calls led to a statistical significant increase in the number of responses to a community-wide survey, relative to no phone call. This relative increase in responses (n=62 for the follow-up phone call group versus n=l for controls), did not increase the absolute survey response rate sufficiently (from 38.5% for two mailed surveys to 39.8% for two mailed surveys plus a phone call) to justify the phone call costs. Scenario analyses show increasing the initial response rate by 10% and conducting a second mailed survey achieves greater marginal cost savings than increasing the response rate to the second mailout or the follow-up phone calls. Conclusions: These results suggest a follow-up phone call was not cost effective. Survey research ought to primarily focus on obtaining optimal initial response rates by using strategies identified in a Cochrane meta-analytic review. Key words: response rate, non-response, survey, follow-up, cost, randomised controlled trial. Aust NZ J Public Health. 2010; 34:508-12 doi: 10.1111/j.1753-6405.2010.00598.x

Increasingly, American households are choosing to forgo ownership of landline telephones in favor of cell phones. Presently, more than 25% of Hispanics now only own a cell phone. Concern about potential bias from noncoverage of this 'cell-only' population in traditional general population RDD (random digit dial) telephone interviewing has been a particular focus among the survey research community. Because Hispanics lead all ethnic and racial groups in the percentage who are now cell-only, it is critical to understand the impact this has on research of Hispanics, which to date is still largely accomplished using traditional landline telephone survey methods. This article explores the extent to which noncoverage of cell-only Hispanics leads to raw bias in landline telephone surveys of Hispanics and the degree to which survey weights may correct for such bias.

Objectives. To examine public response to a telephone screener used to identify a probability sample of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals. Methods. A telephone screener was designed to provide a representative sample of self-identified lesbians, gays, and bisexuals (LGB) in the 30 central cities of the 15 largest Consolidated Metropolitan Areas. Results. Of 14,458 households contacted, 11,612 completed at least part of the survey. Of these, only 2.6% refused or responded 'don't know' to the sexual orientation screener question. Respondents from the northeast were more reluctant to answer than respondents from the west. Conclusions. The use of a screener on a national telephone survey to screen households for self-identified lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults was a successful way to generate a representative sample. KEYWORDS. Survey research, survey screener, sexual orientation, gay, lesbian, bisexual

This study replicates and extends the research of Rosenbaum, Rabenhorst, Reddy, Fleming, and Howells, which also appears in this special issue. Responses from 398 randomly assigned participants regarding differentially sensitive topics were collected via four methods of data collection: written questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, telephone interviews, and an automated telephonic data collection system (ATDC). Several significant differences in data collection methodology and topic area were found, including greater disclosure of sensitive information via the ATDC system than via face-to-face and paper-and-pencil conditions. Participants who were assigned to the ATDC condition felt significantly more comfortable answering questions compared to those in the face-to-face interview condition. Participants in the telephone interview condition reported answering significantly more carefully than participants answering via written questionnaire. Taken together, the results of this study and the previous one it replicates suggest that the ATDC produces disclosure rates that are at least equivalent to, if not greater than, those generated using traditional methods for collecting sensitive data. Keywords: IVR; disclosure; data technology; sensitive information; methodology

Concerns have been raised regarding the appropriateness of asking about violence victimization in telephone interviews and whether asking such questions increases respondents' distress or risk for harm. However, no large-scale studies have evaluated the impact of asking such questions during a telephone interview. This study explored respondents' reactions to questions regarding violence in two large recently completed telephone surveys. After respondents were asked about violence, they were asked if they thought surveys should ask such questions and whether they felt upset or afraid because of the questions. In both surveys, the majority of respondents (regardless of their victimization history) were willing to answer questions about violence and were not upset or afraid because of the questions. More than 92% of respondents thought such questions should be asked. These results challenge commonly held beliefs and assumptions and provide some assurance to those concerned with the ethical collection of data on violent victimization. Keywords: intimate partner violence; telephone surveys; ethics

Regression models are often used, explicitly or implicitly, for decision making. However, the choices made in setting up the models (e.g., inclusion of predictors based on statistical significance) do not [...]

Objectives: To describe response rates and call characteristics using random digit dialling (RDD) methods in a population-based prevalence study of chronic pain; to compare respondent characteristics according to telephone number listing status. Methods: A RDD telephone study of chronic pain was conducted using computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) methods in the Northern Sydney Area in 1998. Results: Unlisted number respondents (18.5%) were younger, had a higher proportion of males, and were less likely to live in households with three or more eligible adults. There was no difference in chronic pain status between the two groups. The overall response rate was 73.4% (unlisted number group 66.3%; listed number group 75.0%). Answering machine messages boosted response rates (79.7%). 10.9% of unlisted numbers used in the study resulted in completed interviews, compared with 31.3% of the listed numbers used. Conclusions: The relatively high response rate obtained, differences in characteristics associated with listing status and reduction in sampling bias provided by using RDD methods have to be balanced against the differential response rates between listed and unlisted number groups and higher costs (including opportunity costs). Implications: Published data on the experience of using RDD methods can assist public health researchers in deciding whether to use these methods in telephone surveys.

This telephone survey of 946 households asking about fictitious government agencies and not offering a 'don't know' response option led to a significantly higher uninformed response rates. Increased pressure to respond led to a higher number of negative responses. The author concludes that if consumers are willing to offer opinions about non-existent organizations, they will offer uninformed opinions on actual issues or brands.

We consider models that underlie two proposals to estimate nonparticipation bias. The first model posits a 'continuum of resistance,' placing people who were interviewed during the first contact on one end of the continuum and nonparticipants on the other. The second model assumes that there are different classes of nonparticipants and that similar classes can be found among participants; it then uses groups of participants thought to be like nonparticipants to estimate the characteristics of nonparticipants. We examine the justification for these models of the relationship between participants and nonparticipants and consider how well proposed methods based on these models describe nonparticipants and the impact of nonparticipation on survey estimates. The case we analyze is estimates of means of child support awards and payments in Wisconsin. We find that neither model is successful and that the versions of the methods we use do not detect the true extent of nonparticipation error in estimates based on the unadjusted sample mean. This failure occurs both for an external measure that is not contaminated with response errors and for self-reports. But response errors, which are not considered in the models we have found in the literature, substantially worsen matters., Nonparticipation (i.e., unit nonresponse) can introduce substantial error into survey estimates when the number of nonparticipants is large relative to the sample size, and nonparticipants differ greatly from participants. But [...]

Abstract Nontelephone households are implicitly treated as a static population in discussions of sampling frame noncoverage. Yet telephone service is known to be episodic for many households, who may gain [...]

A number of researchers have suggested list-assisted sampling for the selection of telephone households to overcome some of the operational difficulties associated with the Mitofsky-Waksberg methods of random digit dialing (RDD). An advantage of a list-assisted method of RDD is that an equal probability systematic sample of telephone numbers can be selected and the variances of estimates from such a sample are usually lower than from a clustered design like the Mitofsky-Waksberg method. The main disadvantage of the list-assisted method is that it excludes some households from the sample, thus creating a coverage bias in the estimates. This article describes research on the coverage bias for a particular method of list-assisted sampling. The two key determinants of coverage bias are the proportion of households that are not eligible for the sample and the differences in the characteristics of the covered and not covered populations. The results show that about 4 percent of all households are excluded in national samples using this method of sampling. Furthermore, they show that the differences between the covered and uncovered populations are generally not large. The coverage bias resulting from these conditions may often be small., Introduction The percentage of households with telephones in the United States has increased steadily over the last 30 years, and approximately 94 percent of all persons now live in such [...]

Although data collection in conjoint analysis has traditionally involved the use of in-person interviews, recent years have seen a trend toward the use of alternative data collection modes, including mail questionnaires and telephone interviews. Since these alternative modes differ in environment, the author examines the predictive performance of conjoint models under three data collection modes, i.e., in person interviews, mail questionnaire, and telephone interviews. The results indicate the conjoint models examined to be comparable in predictive performance across the three data collection modes. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

This discussion of the theories and methods of telephone surveys begins by considering the theories relevant to understanding mode effects. It analyzes theories related to coverage error, psychological theories of compliance and persuasion relevant to nonresponse error, sociological theories relevant to nonresponse error, and cognitive and social psychological theories relevant to measurement error. The second part of the chapter discusses results from methodological studies and deals with four kinds of error: coverage error, sampling error, nonresponse error, and measurement error. The third section of the chapter deals with computer-assisted data collection. The chapter concludes with a summary and a short anticipation of the future in telephone survey studies.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the degrees of promulgation and utilization of the results of a survey of fifteen food cooperatives done three years earlier. Through telephone follow ups it was discovered that geography played an important role, in usage as cooperatives closer to the center doing the survey displayed more indications of use, and previously unknown instances of use were also discovered. Results indicate that such follow-up studies are a realistic way to determine actual instances of applications as opposed to broad conclusions concerning value. The study also stimulated interest in the cooperatives studied in handling research efforts of their own.

Use of telephone prompts to improve survey response rates is discussed, with a focus on comparing effectiveness of prompts by a medical researcher versus a nonmedical research assistant. Topics include response rates, number and time of telephone calls, and personnel costs.

Background: Patients with chronic gastroenterological conditions often have concerns and queries that may require medical input. These patients may have to wait to be seen in the outpatient clinic. In [...]

A computerized adaptive test of word knowledge was administered over the telephone by reading items and response alternatives to 144 individuals who had recently enlisted in the U.S. Army and [...]