Physician Participation in Research Surveys: A Randomized Study of Inducements to Return Mailed Research Questionnaires

The authors randomly selected 400 physicians from a population of 1,545 practicing physicians providing follow-up care to patients who received bone marrow or blood stem cell transplants at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to determine interest in receiving Internet-based transplant inform...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evaluation & the health professions 1999-12, Vol.22 (4), p.427-441
Main Authors: Donaldson, Gary W., Moinpour, Carol M., Bush, Nigel E., Chapko, Michael, Jocom, Jane, Siadak, Muriel, Nielsen-Stoeck, Michelle, Bradshaw, Jeffrey M., Bichindaritz, Isabelle, Sullivan, Keith M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aftercare
Aged
Attitude of Health Personnel
Bone marrow
Doctors
Factor Analysis, Statistical
Factors
Female
Health technology assessment
Humans
Incentives
Information
Information Services
Internet
Logistic Models
Male
Middle Aged
Motivation
Organ Transplantation
Participation
Physicians - psychology
Surveys
Surveys and Questionnaires
Transplants
United States
USA
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Summary:The authors randomly selected 400 physicians from a population of 1,545 practicing physicians providing follow-up care to patients who received bone marrow or blood stem cell transplants at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to determine interest in receiving Internet-based transplant information. In a two-factor completely randomized factorial design, the 400 physicians were assigned to receive mailed surveys with either no compensation or a $5 check and either no follow-up call or a follow-up call 3 weeks after mailing. Overall, 51.5% of the physicians returned the mailed surveys. Comparison of logit models showed that inclusion of a $5 check in the mailer significantly (p = .016) increased the probability of returning the surveys (57.5% vs. 45.5%). In contrast, the telephone follow-up had no overall effect. The authors concluded a modest financial reward can significantly improve physician response rates to research surveys but a telephone follow-up may be inefficient and even ineffective.
ISSN:0163-2787
1552-3918
DOI:10.1177/01632789922034392