Are Lower Response Rates Hazardous to Your Health Survey? An Analysis of Three State Telephone Health Surveys

Objective. To examine the impact of response rate variation on survey estimates and costs in three health telephone surveys. Data Source. Three telephone surveys of noninstitutionalized adults in Minnesota and Oklahoma conducted from 2003 to 2005. Study Design. We examine differences in demographics...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health services research Vol. 45; no. 5p1; pp. 1324 - 1344
Main Authors: Davern, Michael, McAlpine, Donna, Beebe, Timothy J., Ziegenfuss, Jeanette, Rockwood, Todd, Call, Kathleen Thiede
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Malden, USA Blackwell Publishing Inc 01.10.2010
Health Research and Educational Trust
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Blackwell Science Inc
Subjects:
Adjustment
Adolescent
Adult
Adults
Aged
Aggression
Aggressiveness
Bias
Demography
drug use
Female
Funding
Health
Health care access
Health care costs
Health care expenditures
Health Care Surveys - economics
Health Care Surveys - methods
Health Care Surveys - utilization
Health costs
Health insurance
Health insurance industry
Health Services Accessibility - statistics & numerical data
Health survey
Health Surveys
Households
Humans
Insurance Coverage - statistics & numerical data
Male
Medical care, Cost of
Middle Aged
Minnesota
Money
Multivariate Analysis
Needs Assessment - statistics & numerical data
Oklahoma
Patient Acceptance of Health Care - psychology
Patient Acceptance of Health Care - statistics & numerical data
Patient Dropouts - psychology
Patient Dropouts - statistics & numerical data
Polls & surveys
Power
Research Design
Research methodology
Research Subjects - psychology
Research Subjects - supply & distribution
Response bias
Response rate
Response rates
Sample Size
Statistical power
Statistics
Studies
survey methods
Survey Research
Surveys
Telephone
Telephone surveys
Telephones
Variables
United States > US
Oklahoma
Minnesota
ISSN:0017-9124, 1475-6773, 1475-6773
Online Access:Get full text
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Description
Summary:Objective. To examine the impact of response rate variation on survey estimates and costs in three health telephone surveys. Data Source. Three telephone surveys of noninstitutionalized adults in Minnesota and Oklahoma conducted from 2003 to 2005. Study Design. We examine differences in demographics and health measures by number of call attempts made before completion of the survey or whether the household initially refused to participate. We compare the point estimates we actually obtained with those we would have obtained with a less aggressive protocol and subsequent lower response rate. We also simulate what the effective sample sizes would have been if less aggressive protocols were followed. Principal Findings. Unweighted bivariate analyses reveal many differences between early completers and those requiring more contacts and between those who initially refused to participate and those who did not. However, after making standard poststratification adjustments, no statistically significant differences were observed in the key health variables we examined between the early responders and the estimates derived from the full reporting sample. Conclusions. Our findings demonstrate that for the surveys we examined, larger effective sample sizes (i.e., more statistical power) could have been achieved with the same amount of funding using less aggressive calling protocols. For some studies, money spent on aggressively pursuing high response rates could be better used to increase statistical power and/or to directly examine nonresponse bias.
Bibliography:ark:/67375/WNG-SX8J2LF0-5
ArticleID:HESR1128
istex:F01A35420E5F9942B65A87C69F3DBCC01337974E
Donna McAlpine, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Todd Rockwood, Ph.D., Associate Professor, and Kathleen Thiede Call, Ph.D., Associate Professor, are with the Division of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. Timothy J. Beebe, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Health Services Research, and Jeanette Ziegenfuss, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Health Services Research, are with the Division of Health Care Policy and Research, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN.
davern‐michael@norc.org
Address correspondence to Michael Davern, Ph.D., Vice President, Director of Public Health Research, NORC at the University of Chicago, 55 E. Monroe, Suite 3000, Chicago, IL 60603; e‐mail
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ISSN:0017-9124
1475-6773
1475-6773
DOI:10.1111/j.1475-6773.2010.01128.x