Letter

Increasing response rates to postal questionnaires

BMJ 2002; 325 doi: 10.1136/bmj.325.7361.444 (Published 24 August 2002)
Cite this as: BMJ 2002;325:444.1

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Changing layout of questionnaires increases response rates

  1. Cynthia P Iglesias, research fellow. (cpiu@york.ac.uk),
  2. Yvonne F Birks, research fellow.,
  3. David J Torgerson, reader
  1. Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York YO10 5DD
  2. Frimley Green Medical Centre, Frimley Green, Surrey GU16 6QQ
  3. University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL
  4. Department of Health Studies and Centre for Health Economics, University of York, York YO10 5DD

    EDITOR—The systematic review by Edwards et al is helpful to those of us who routinely design and use questionnaires in our research.1 One area not covered by the review, which is important, is the quality of the response.

    Response rates are clearly important, but the quality of the responses is also important in that returned questionnaires with some questions either missing or incorrectly filled in will have the same effect as a poor response. In a pilot study of questionnaires for a trial among people with venous ulcers one of us (CPI) noticed that many items on the SF12 were either missed or incorrectly completed. The questions that were missed were …

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