Enclosing a pen with a postal questionnaire can significantly increase the response rate

Enclosing a pen reduced time to response to questionnaire mailings

“…A meta-analysis of this study with the other 'trial within a trial' identified from the Cochrane systematic review that evaluated the use of enclosing a pen with a mailing to improve response rates [13] yielded a pooled OR of 1.21 (95% CI 1.05 to 1.39, p=0.01) (Figure 4). This is similar to our observed OR of 1.16 (95% CI 0.98 to 1.37, p=0.08).…”

“…Of the four trials that were not embedded within a broarder randomised controlled trial, two reported a significant increase in response [13,14], whilst the remaining two actually reported a decrease in response rate, though not significantly [11,12].…”

“…Together, these have identified five trials evaluating the effect of adding a pen or pencil to postal mail outs on response rate [11][12][13][14]. Two of these aimed to increase response rates to stand-alone surveys, one to clinicians [12] and one to smokers [11], one aimed to increase response to a study recruitment invitation [14], and two aimed to increase response to a study follow-up survey [13,14]. Only one of these trials took the same methodological approach as the present work, embedding a trial of including a pen to increase response rate within an ongoing host trial [10].…”

“…Only one of these trials took the same methodological approach as the present work, embedding a trial of including a pen to increase response rate within an ongoing host trial [10]. The study was a 2x2x2 factorial trial embedded within the TOMBOLA study (Trial Of Management of Borderline and Other Low grade Abnormal smears) of cervical cytology surveillance, evaluating the effect on response rates of: i) enclosing a TOMBOLA-branded pen with the questionnaire; ii) sending the questionnaires by first class post (as opposed to second class); and iii) enclosing a preaddressed return envelope on which there was a second class postage stamp (rather than a freepost business-reply envelope) [13]. reported an increase in staff time, due to the necessity to manually frank envelopes containing a pen for postage, given the small price of the pen (14 pence), the method was considered relatively low cost for the level of effectiveness.…”

After-effects reported by women having follow-up cervical cytology tests in primary care: a cohort study within the TOMBOLA trial

“…During 2003, part-way through the current study, the researchers started sending a pen with all postal questionnaires in TOMBOLA, to maximise response rates. 21 A copy of the questionnaire is available from the authors on request.…”