Miscellany: Increasing Mail Survey Response with an Envelope Tester

Dommeyer, Curt J.; Elganayan, Doris; Umans, Cliff

doi:10.1177/147078539103300203

Cited by 11 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…a stamp on the envelope reading "Did you know you were entitled to more money?") or a control group with no such stamp [ 11 ]. While this finding is suggestive, the small sample size does not support a strong inference, nor can the findings be generalized to a physician population.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting physicians to open the survey: little evidence that an envelope teaser increases response rates

Ziegenfuss

Burmeister

James

et al. 2012

BMC Med Res Methodol

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BackgroundPhysician surveys are an important tool to assess attitudes, beliefs and self-reported behaviors of this policy relevant group. In order for a physician to respond to a mailed survey, they must first open the envelope. While there is some evidence that package elements can impact physician response rates, the impact of an envelope teaser is unknown. Here we assess this by testing the impact of adding a brightly colored "$25 incentive" sticker to the outside of an envelope on response rates and nonresponse bias in a survey of physicians.MethodsIn the second mailing of a survey assessing physicians' moral beliefs and views on controversial health care topics, initial nonrespondents were randomly assigned to receive a survey in an envelope with a colored "$25 incentive" sticker (teaser group) or an envelope without a sticker (control group). Response rates were compared between the teaser and control groups overall and by age, gender, region of the United States, specialty and years in practice. Nonresponse bias was assessed by comparing the demographic composition of the respondents to the nonrespondents in the experimental and control condition.ResultsNo significant differences in response rates were observed between the experimental and control conditions overall (p = 0.38) or after stratifying by age, gender, region, or practice type. Within the teaser condition, there was some variation in response rate by years since graduation. There was no independent effect of the teaser on response when simultaneously controlling for demographic characteristics (OR = 0.875, p = 0.4112).ConclusionsNeither response rates nor nonresponse bias were impacted by the use of an envelope teaser in a survey of physicians in the United States.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting physicians to open the survey: little evidence that an envelope teaser increases response rates

Ziegenfuss

Burmeister

James

et al. 2012

BMC Med Res Methodol

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“…Unfortunately, we were not able to check our second intervention, the teaser, because the printing company sent all the envelopes unprinted by mistake. Our expectation were higher participation rates through the use of the teaser [ 30 ]. The first round of invitation letters was sent during the first weeks of a COVID-19 induced lockdown.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A photograph of the researcher on the invitation letter did not affect the participation rate of a postal survey: a randomized study within a trial (SWAT)

Prediger

Könsgen²,

Bora³

et al. 2022

BMC Med Res Methodol

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Objective Participant recruitment is one of the main challenges in research. It is suggested that including researcher photographs might increase participation rates, but empirical evidence is lacking. This study within a trial (SWAT) aims to assess whether invitation letters including researcher photographs increase the participation rate in the context of a survey on medical second opinions. Methods Through 25 local register offices in Berlin and Brandenburg (Germany), we identified a random sample of 9990 persons. We randomly assigned our sample to the intervention group (IG) receiving an invitation letter with researcher photographs and control group (CG) receiving an invitation letter without photographs in a 1:1 ratio. Our primary outcome was the participation rate. Furthermore, we compared participants to non-participants’ characteristics. Results Of 9990 invitations, 9797 could be delivered (IG: 4890, CG: 4907). Of these, 1349 (13.8%) participated. There were 682/4890 (13.9%) participants in the IG and 662/4907 (13.5%) in the CG with an odds ratio of 1.030 (95% confidence interval: 0.918–1.156). Additional analyses on non-participant characteristics did not show any differences. Conclusion We could not find any difference in the participation rates. Our study does not confirm the results of previous studies. The length of our questionnaire may have affected our results. Trial registration Queens University Belfast – SWAT Store, SWAT 104.

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“…We are unaware of any head-to-head comparisons of mailing, and faxing advance prompts to physicians. Including a ''teaser'' message to arouse curiosity about the contents of a letter promoted a higher response rate in members of the general public [17]. To reach FPs, incoming mail must pass through practice staff, who may act as ''gate-keepers'' to filter and dispose of mail that may seem unimportant and outside a doctor's core business [3].…”

Section: What Is the Implication What Should Change Now?mentioning

confidence: 99%

No difference demonstrated between faxed or mailed prenotification in promoting questionnaire response among family physicians: a randomized controlled trial

Gattellari

Zwar

Worthington

2012

Journal of Clinical Epidemiology

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Miscellany: Increasing Mail Survey Response with an Envelope Tester

Cited by 11 publications

References 12 publications

Getting physicians to open the survey: little evidence that an envelope teaser increases response rates

Getting physicians to open the survey: little evidence that an envelope teaser increases response rates

A photograph of the researcher on the invitation letter did not affect the participation rate of a postal survey: a randomized study within a trial (SWAT)

No difference demonstrated between faxed or mailed prenotification in promoting questionnaire response among family physicians: a randomized controlled trial

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