TY - JOUR AU - Banks E. AU - Jorm L. AU - Phongsavan P. AU - Bauman A. AU - Rogers K. AU - Cowle A. AU - Jalaludin B. AU - Grunseit A. AB -

BACKGROUND: The issue of poor response rates to population surveys has existed for some decades, but few studies have explored methods to improve the response rate in follow-up population cohort studies. METHODS: A sample of 100,000 adults from the 45 and Up Study, a large population cohort in Australia, were followed up 3.5 years after the baseline cohort was assembled. A pilot mail-out of 5000 surveys produced a response rate of only 41.7 %. This study tested methods of enhancing response rate, with three groups of 1000 each allocated to (1) receiving an advance notice postcard followed by a questionnaire, (2) receiving a questionnaire and then follow-up reminder letter, and (3) both these strategies. RESULTS: The enhanced strategies all produced an improved response rate compared to the pilot, with a resulting mean response rate of 53.7 %. Highest response was found when both the postcard and questionnaire reminder were used (56.4 %) but this was only significantly higher when compared to postcard alone (50.5 %) but not reminder alone (54.1 %). The combined approach was used for recruitment among the remaining 92,000 participants, with a resultant further increased response rate of 61.6 %. CONCLUSIONS: Survey prompting with a postcard and a reminder follow-up questionnaire, applied separately or combined can enhance follow-up rates in large scale survey-based epidemiological studies.

AD - Prevention Research Collaboration, Level 6 Charles Perkins Centre D17, Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia.
Sax Institute, University of Technology, PO Box K617, Haymarket, NSW 1240 Australia.
National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Building 62, Acton, ACT 0200 Australia.
Centre for Big Data Research in Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052 Australia.
The George Institute for Global Health, PO Box M201, Missenden Road, Camperdown, NSW 2050 Australia.
School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia ; Centre for Research, Evidence Management and Surveillance, Locked Bag 7279, Liverpool, NSW 1871 Australia. AN - 27087827 BT - Emerg Themes Epidemiol C2 - PMC4832455 CN - [IF]: 2.1700 DA - 169709313583 DP - NLM J2 - Emerging themes in epidemiology LA - eng LB - AUS
OCS
FY16 N1 - Bauman, Adrian
Phongsavan, Philayrath
Cowle, Alison
Banks, Emily
Jorm, Louisa
Rogers, Kris
Jalaludin, Bin
Grunseit, Anne
England
Emerg Themes Epidemiol. 2016 Apr 14;13:6. doi: 10.1186/s12982-016-0046-y. eCollection 2016. N2 -

BACKGROUND: The issue of poor response rates to population surveys has existed for some decades, but few studies have explored methods to improve the response rate in follow-up population cohort studies. METHODS: A sample of 100,000 adults from the 45 and Up Study, a large population cohort in Australia, were followed up 3.5 years after the baseline cohort was assembled. A pilot mail-out of 5000 surveys produced a response rate of only 41.7 %. This study tested methods of enhancing response rate, with three groups of 1000 each allocated to (1) receiving an advance notice postcard followed by a questionnaire, (2) receiving a questionnaire and then follow-up reminder letter, and (3) both these strategies. RESULTS: The enhanced strategies all produced an improved response rate compared to the pilot, with a resulting mean response rate of 53.7 %. Highest response was found when both the postcard and questionnaire reminder were used (56.4 %) but this was only significantly higher when compared to postcard alone (50.5 %) but not reminder alone (54.1 %). The combined approach was used for recruitment among the remaining 92,000 participants, with a resultant further increased response rate of 61.6 %. CONCLUSIONS: Survey prompting with a postcard and a reminder follow-up questionnaire, applied separately or combined can enhance follow-up rates in large scale survey-based epidemiological studies.

PY - 2016 SN - 1742-7622 (Linking) EP - 6 ST - Emerging themes in epidemiologyEmerging themes in epidemiology T2 - Emerg Themes Epidemiol TI - Maximising follow-up participation rates in a large scale 45 and Up Study in Australia VL - 13 Y2 - FY16 ER -