Estimating Nonresponse Bias in Mail Surveys

Nonresponse Rates and Nonresponse Bias In Household Surveys

Many surveys of the U.S. household population are experiencing higher refusal rates. Nonresponse can, but need not, induce nonresponse bias in survey estimates. Recent empirical findings illustrate cases when the linkage between nonresponse rates and nonresponse biases is absent. Despite this, professional standards continue to urge high response rates. Statistical expressions of nonresponse bi...

Nonresponse Error in Mail Surveys: Top Ten Problems

Conducting mail surveys can result in nonresponse error, which occurs when the potential participant is unwilling to participate or impossible to contact. Nonresponse can result in a reduction in precision of the study and may bias results. The purpose of this paper is to describe and make readers aware of a top ten list of mailed survey problems affecting the response rate encountered over tim...

Nonresponse bias in a mail survey of physicians.

With the increased pressure on survey researchers to achieve high response rates, it is critical to explore issues related to nonresponse. In this study, the authors examined the effects of nonresponse bias in a mail survey of physicians (N = 3,400). Because slightly more than one half of the sample did not respond to the survey, there was potential for bias if nonresponders differed significan...

Investigating non-response bias in mail surveys.

Losses in follow-up that are biased with respect to outcome invalidate the results. There are many ways of dealing with non-response in follow-up studies. Three separate methods were used to investigate a potential bias in a mail survey of 2471 disabled people. At a response rate of 84%, the non-respondents were significantly different from the respondents with respect to the outcome, return to...

Designing Surveys Acknowledging Nonresponse