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Physician response rates to a mail survey by specialty and timing of incentive
Cristine D Delnevo1, Diane J Abatemarco, Michael B Steinberg
1University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Public Health, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903-2688, USA. delnevo@umdnj.edu
Background:
Historically, achieving a high response rate on physician surveys has been a challenging task. Given such concerns, understanding research strategies that facilitate adequate response rates is important. Primary care physician responses to a mail survey on smoking cessation are summarized by physician specialty and timing of incentive.
Methods:
A stratified random-sample design, stratified by patient populations-adults, adolescents, and pregnant women-was used. The sampling frame included New Jersey internists, general practitioners, family physicians, pediatricians, and obstetrician-gynecologists. A total of 2100 physicians, 700 physicians from each patient strata, were sampled and mailed a smoking-cessation survey in summer 2002. The sample was randomized by incentive timing: Half received the incentive (i.e., 25 dollars gift card) with the first survey mailing, and half received the incentive on receipt of their completed survey.
Results:
The promised-incentive group achieved a significantly lower response rate (56%) compared with the up-front-incentive group (71.5%). Response rates by medical specialty varied overall and within incentive groups. The difference between the incentive groups was greatest among obstetrician-gynecologists (i.e., 20.2 percentage points) and was least among pediatricians (i.e., 5.8 percentage points).
Conclusions:
Physician response rates to mail surveys are greatly improved, especially among certain medical specialties, by using up-front incentives.
