Physician response rates to mail and personal interview surveys

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Survey Methodology

Background:

• Physician antibiotic prescription practices are crucial for public health.
• Standardized survey outcome definitions are lacking, hindering comparative analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare mail and personal administration of a physician antibiotic prescription practices questionnaire.
• To introduce a framework for defining and comparing survey outcomes.

Main Methods:

• A randomized experiment was conducted comparing mail and personal survey administration.
• Six novel concepts were introduced to define and compare survey outcomes.

Main Results:

• Mail surveys were found to be more time-efficient, cost-effective, and achieved higher response rates than personal surveys.
• The study provides methods to optimize the mail survey technique.

Conclusions:

• Mail surveys offer a superior method for gathering data on physician antibiotic prescribing behaviors.
• The proposed outcome concepts aid in the consistent evaluation of survey methodologies.