Association between response rates and monetary incentives in sample study: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Jia, Pengli; Furuya‐Kanamori, Luis; Qin, Zongshi; Jia, Peng-Yan; Xu, Chang

doi:10.1136/postgradmedj-2020-137868

Cited by 13 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 119 publications

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“…Our study is consistent with previous literature showing that prenotifications can increase response rates, particularly for electronic surveys [ 4 , 10 , 20 - 22 , 39 ]. We also observed higher response rates when including a gift or monetary incentive; however, prior studies only observed an increase with monetary incentives [ 39 - 42 ] and not with other incentives [ 43 - 46 ]. Interestingly, in cancer patients, both a small gift for all invited individuals or a gift card for those who completed the survey led to similar response rates.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Improving Electronic Survey Response Rates Among Cancer Center Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mixed Methods Pilot Study

Hathaway¹,

Chavez²,

Kadono³

et al. 2021

JMIR Cancer

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Background Surveys play a vital role in cancer research. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of electronic surveys is crucial to improve understanding of the patient experience. However, response rates to electronic surveys are often lower compared with those of paper surveys. Objective The aim of this study was to determine the best approach to improve response rates for an electronic survey administered to patients at a cancer center during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods We contacted 2750 patients seen at Moffitt Cancer Center in the prior 5 years via email to complete a survey regarding their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, with patients randomly assigned to a series of variations of prenotifications (ie, postcard, letter) or incentives (ie, small gift, modest gift card). In total, eight combinations were evaluated. Qualitative interviews were conducted to understand the level of patient understanding and burden with the survey, and quantitative analysis was used to evaluate the response rates between conditions. Results A total of 262 (9.5%) patients completed the survey and 9 participated in a qualitative interview. Interviews revealed minimal barriers in understanding or burden, which resulted in minor survey design changes. Compared to sending an email only, sending a postcard or letter prior to the email improved response rates from 3.7% to 9.8%. Similarly, inclusion of an incentive significantly increased the response rate from 5.4% to 16.7%, especially among racial (3.0% to 12.2%) and ethnic (6.4% to 21.0%) minorities, as well as among patients with low socioeconomic status (3.1% to 14.9%). Conclusions Strategies to promote effective response rates include prenotification postcards or letters as well as monetary incentives. This work can inform future survey development to increase response rates for electronic surveys, particularly among hard-to-reach populations.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Improving Electronic Survey Response Rates Among Cancer Center Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mixed Methods Pilot Study

Hathaway¹,

Chavez²,

Kadono³

et al. 2021

JMIR Cancer

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our study is consistent with previous literature showing that prenotifications can increase response rates, particularly for electronic surveys [4,10,[20][21][22]39]. We also observed higher response rates when including a gift or monetary incentive; however, prior studies only observed an increase with monetary incentives [39][40][41][42] and not with other incentives [43][44][45][46].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Improving Electronic Survey Response Rates Among Cancer Center Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mixed Methods Pilot Study (Preprint)

Hathaway¹,

Chavez²,

Kadono³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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BACKGROUND Surveys play a vital role in cancer research. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of electronic surveys is crucial to improve understanding of the patient experience. However, response rates to electronic survey are often lower compared to paper surveys. OBJECTIVE Our goal was to determine the best approach to improve response rates for an electronic survey administered to patients at a cancer center during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS We contacted 2,750 patients seen at Moffitt Cancer Center in the prior five years via email to complete a survey regarding their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, with patients randomly assigned to a series of variations of pre-notifications (i.e., postcard, letter) or incentives (i.e., small gift, modest gift card). In total, eight combinations were evaluated. Qualitative interviews were conducted to understand the level of patient understanding and burden with the survey, and quantitative analysis evaluated the response rates between conditions. RESULTS A total of 262 (9.5%) patients completed the survey, and 9 participated in a qualitative interview. Interviews revealed minimal barriers in understanding or burden and resulted in minor survey design changes. Compared to sending an email only, sending a postcard or letter prior to the email improved response rates from 3.7% to 9.8%. Similarly, inclusion of an incentive significantly increased response the rate from 5.4% to 16.7%, especially among racial (3.0% to 12.2%) and ethnic minorities (6.4% to 21.0%) as well as patients with low socioeconomic status (3.1% to 14.9%). CONCLUSIONS Strategies to promote effective response rates include pre-notification postcards or letters as well as monetary incentives. This work can inform future survey development to increase response rates for electronic surveys, particularly among hard-to-reach populations.

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“…Thus, several studies have investigated influential factors of trial recruitment and participation. Key influential factors include altruistic motives [10][11][12][13][14], such as contribution to scientific research, financial incentives [13,[15][16][17][18], and the doctor-patient relationship [11,19,20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception of clinical research among patients and healthy volunteers of clinical trials

Bergmann

Matzneller

Weber

et al. 2022

Eur J Clin Pharmacol

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Purpose Clinical research relies on data from patients and volunteers, yet the target sample size is often not achieved. Here, we assessed the perception of clinical research among clinical trial participants to improve the recruitment process for future studies. Methods We conducted a single-center descriptive and exploratory study of 300 current or former participants in various phase I–III clinical trials. Questionnaires were either distributed to current clinical trial participants or emailed to former subjects. Results Subjects strongly agreed or agreed that contributing to improving medical care (> 81%), contributing to scientific research (> 79%), and trusting their treating physicians (> 77%) were motives for study participation. Among healthy volunteers, financial motives positively correlated with the number of clinical trials they had participated in (p < 0.05). Higher age positively correlated with expectation of best available treatment during study participation among patients (p < 0.05). Less than 8% of all subjects expressed “great concern” about the potential risks of sharing their personal information as part of the study. Subjects displayed “great trust” or “trust” in medical staff (86.6%) and in government research institutions (76.4%), and “very little trust” or “little trust” in pharmaceutical companies (35.4%) and health insurance companies (16.9%). Conclusion Altruistic motives and trust in treating physicians were predominant motives for clinical trial participation. Older patients expected to receive the best available treatment during participation. Healthy volunteers who reported financial motives had participated in more clinical trials. Consistent with great trust in medical staff and government research institutions, little concern was expressed about the misuse of personal data during the trial.

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Association between response rates and monetary incentives in sample study: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Cited by 13 publications

References 119 publications

Improving Electronic Survey Response Rates Among Cancer Center Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mixed Methods Pilot Study

Improving Electronic Survey Response Rates Among Cancer Center Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mixed Methods Pilot Study

Improving Electronic Survey Response Rates Among Cancer Center Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mixed Methods Pilot Study (Preprint)

Perception of clinical research among patients and healthy volunteers of clinical trials

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