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Unconditional and conditional monetary incentives to increase response to mailed questionnaires: A randomized
Ben Young1, Laura Bedford1, Roshan das Nair2
1Division of Primary Care, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice
|July 23, 2019
Summary
Unconditional monetary incentives may temporarily boost mailed questionnaire response rates in clinical trials. However, this approach may risk data completeness and requires careful cost-benefit analysis.
Area of Science:
- Clinical Trials
- Health Services Research
- Incentive Studies
Background:
- High questionnaire response rates are crucial for representative study results and statistical power.
- Improving response speed and quality can significantly reduce research costs.
- Monetary incentives are a common strategy to enhance participant engagement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the effectiveness of unconditional versus conditional monetary incentives on questionnaire response rates.
- To evaluate the impact of incentive type on data completeness and the need for reminders.
- To assess the long-term effects of monetary incentives on participant response in a clinical trial.
Main Methods:
- A randomized study within a trial (SWAT) was conducted.
- Participants received either an unconditional £5 gift voucher or a conditional voucher upon return.
- Response rates, data completeness, and reminder needs were tracked over 12 months.
Main Results:
- Unconditional incentives showed a higher response rate for the first questionnaire (94.2% vs 91.7%).
- Significantly greater odds of returning repeat questionnaires were observed in the unconditional group at 6 months.
- Incomplete questionnaires were more frequent at 3 months in the unconditional group.
Conclusions:
- Unconditional monetary incentives can offer a short-term increase in mailed questionnaire response rates.
- The observed benefits may be transient, and the findings could be due to chance.
- While potentially cost-saving, unconditional incentives may compromise data completeness, necessitating a balance between response and data quality.
Keywords:
SWATclinical trialmonetary incentivesquestionnairesrandomizedrecruitment strategiesresponse ratesMore Related Videos
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