Influences on participation rate in a national Norwegian child development screening questionnaire study

Aim: To describe the influence of demographic variables on participation rate in a child development screening questionnaire study, and to discuss the implications for data analysis and for the design of future similar studies. Methods: Appropriate Ages and Stages Questionnaires were mailed to 2392...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta Paediatrica 2003-01, Vol.92 (1), p.91-96
Main Author: Janson, H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ages and Stages Questionnaires
Biological and medical sciences
Child
child development
Child, Preschool
Developmental Disabilities - diagnosis
Developmental Disabilities - epidemiology
Epidemiology
Female
General aspects
Humans
Infant
Male
Mass Screening
Medical sciences
Methodology
Norway - epidemiology
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
questionnaires
response rate
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:Aim: To describe the influence of demographic variables on participation rate in a child development screening questionnaire study, and to discuss the implications for data analysis and for the design of future similar studies. Methods: Appropriate Ages and Stages Questionnaires were mailed to 2392 mothers of children aged 4–60 mo. The bivariate and multivariate influence of demographic variables on responding was investigated. Results: The response rate decreased roughly linearly with the age of the child (ranging from 76% at 8 mo to 32% at 60 mo). Mother's educational level, civil status and (marginally) child's gender also contributed independently to the prediction of response. Conclusion: Participation rate may be interpreted in terms of interest/saliency and time demands, if a mother's interest in her baby's normative development is assumed to be great, though decreasing as the child grows. Weighting for demographic variables seems to be a viable procedure in the present project; future studies may consider measures to increase the immediacy of questionnaire completion for mothers of children aged 3 y and older.
ISSN:0803-5253
1651-2227
DOI:10.1111/j.1651-2227.2003.tb00476.x