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Cost-effectiveness of follow-up contact for a postal survey: a randomised controlled trial
- Source :
- Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. Oct, 2010, Vol. 34 Issue 5, p508, 5 p.
- Publication Year :
- 2010
-
Abstract
- 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
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 13260200
- Volume :
- 34
- Issue :
- 5
- Database :
- Gale General OneFile
- Journal :
- Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- edsgcl.241357161