You'll probably come across this anyway, but just in case...
Its in BMJ but is a new Cochrane review, and v practical re ways to increase
response rate to postal questionnaires, so will be of interest to any (poor
souls) doing those. Caught my eye as I've done 3 such postal surveys with
mixed success!
There's no nice summary list, but I've copied part of results below. Full
text at http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7347/1183 (and will be added to
Cochrane DSR)
'The odds of response were more than doubled when a monetary incentive was
used (odds ratio 2.02; 95% confidence interval 1.79 to 2.27) and almost
doubled when incentives were not conditional on response (1.71; 1.29 to
2.26). Response was more likely when short questionnaires were used (1.86;
1.55 to 2.24). Personalised questionnaires and letters increased response
(1.16; 1.06 to 1.28), as did the use of coloured ink (1.39; 1.16 to 1.67).
The odds of response were more than doubled when the questionnaires were
sent by recorded delivery (2.21; 1.51 to 3.25) and increased when stamped
return envelopes were used (1.26; 1.13 to 1.41) and questionnaires were sent
by first class post (1.12; 1.02 to 1.23). Contacting participants before
sending questionnaires increased response (1.54; 1.24 to 1.92), as did
follow up contact (1.44; 1.22 to 1.70) and providing non-respondents with a
second copy of the questionnaire (1.41; 1.02 to 1.94). Questionnaires
designed to be of more interest to participants were more likely to be
returned (2.44; 1.99 to 3.01), but questionnaires containing questions of a
sensitive nature were less likely to be returned (0.92; 0.87 to 0.98).
Questionnaires originating from universities were more likely to be returned
than were questionnaires from other sources, such as commercial
organisations (1.31; 1.11 to 1.54).'
As other BMJ articles mention, its not exactly rocket science, but gives an
evidence base (one mentioned another finding was that response rate
increased if white rather than brown envelopes were used).
Fiona
BL
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