Improving the response rates to questionnaires

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7347.1168

BMJ 2002;324:1168-1169 ( 18 May )

Editorials

Improving the response rates to questionnaires

Several common sense strategies are effective

Papers p 1183

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Most readers of the BMJ probably receive postal questionnaires from time to time. Whether such questionnaires are dutifullycompleted and returned, left to gather dust, or rapidly thrownaway may seem like a random process of little importance. However,while response may be of little consequence at the individuallevel, for many research studies a high response rate to a postalquestionnaire is critical. No matter how expensive, well designed,or important a study, a poor response rate can introduce suchuncertainty $---$ and worse still, bias $---$ in the results as to make thestudy of little scientific value. However, postal questionnairesare attractive to researchers because they are likely to be substantiallycheaper than data collection based on interviews. Postal questionnairesare increasingly used in other areas of health care, for examplein screening programmes, to assess patient satisfaction, or toassess outcomes after treatments such as surgery. Methods to . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Increasing response rates to postal questionnaires: systematic review: Phil Edwards, Ian Roberts, Mike Clarke, Carolyn DiGuiseppi, Sarah Pratap, Reinhard Wentz, and Irene Kwan
BMJ 2002 324: 1183. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Pettinger, C., Holdsworth, M., Gerber, M. (2008). 'All under one roof?' differences in food availability and shopping patterns in Southern France and Central England. Eur J Public Health 18: 109-114 [Abstract] [Full text]
Heje, H. N., Vedsted, P., Olesen, F. (2006). A cluster-randomized trial of the significance of a reminder procedure in a patient evaluation survey in general practice.. Int J Qual Health Care 18: 232-237 [Abstract] [Full text]