Maximising response from GPs to questionnaire surveys: do length or incentives make a difference?

Area of Science:

• Medical Research Methodology
• General Practice
• Survey Design

Background:

• General Practitioners (GPs) exhibit low response rates to postal surveys, potentially compromising data quality and introducing bias.
• Standard methods to improve general population survey response, such as reducing questionnaire length and offering incentives, have not been extensively evaluated for GPs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if reducing questionnaire length and/or offering an incentive improves the response rate of General Practitioners (GPs) to a postal survey.

Main Methods:

• A postal survey was sent to 800 UK General Practitioners (GPs) randomly selected from Binley's database.
• GPs were divided into four groups, receiving either a standard (8-page) or abbreviated (4-page) questionnaire, with or without an incentive (prize draw entry).
• Response rates were calculated and compared across the four experimental groups.

Main Results:

• An adjusted response rate of 22.0% was achieved from the 800 mailed questionnaires (after excluding 19 ineligible GPs).
• Response rates varied from 20.1% to 26.0% across the four groups.
• No statistically significant differences in response rates were found based on questionnaire length, incentive offer, or their combination (p=0.447).

Conclusions:

• Commonly used strategies to enhance postal survey response rates in the general population are ineffective for General Practitioners (GPs).
• Further research is required to develop and test novel strategies specifically tailored to increase GP participation.
• Identifying effective methods to boost GP response is crucial for improving the quality and generalizability of research findings in primary care.