Enhancing response rates in physician surveys: the limited utility of electronic options

To evaluate the utility of offering physicians electronic options as alternatives to completing mail questionnaires.

A survey of colorectal cancer screening practices of Alabama primary care physicians, conducted May-June 2010.

In the follow-up to a mail questionnaire, physicians were offered options of completing surveys by telephone, fax, email, or online.

Detailed records were kept on the timing and mode of completion of surveys.

Eighty-eight percent of surveys were returned by mail, 10 percent were returned by fax, and only 2 percent were completed online; none were completed by telephone or email.

Offering fax options increases response rates, but providing other electronic options does not.