Response to typed and mimeographed letters in a survey using postal questionnaires.

Response to typed and mimeographed letters in a survey using postal questionnaires.

In epidemiological studies using postal questionnaires, a decision must be made as to whether the covering letter should be mimeographed or typed by hand. Considerable time and money are saved when mimeographed letters are used, yet it is generally assumed that hand typed and signed covering letters bring about a higher response rate. During the course of an epidemiological study of slipped cap...

Factors affecting response to postal questionnaires.

Epidemiological studies of chronic diseases often use data gathered individually from many persons, rather than remaining restricted to pre-recorded data. Generally this is done by personal interview, an expensive, time-consuming procedure. The increasing educational level and social consciousness of the population suggest that a carefully designed, highly objective postal questionnaire could s...

Variations in general practitioners' response to postal questionnaires.

Postal questionnaires offer an efficient method of collecting information. They are cheap and relatively quick and can be widely scattered geographically. In approaching professional groups there are no problems of illiteracy or inarticulateness to set against these advantages. The main difficulty then is often the response rate. With general practitioners the problem of response is often thoug...

Who responds to postal questionnaires?

A confidence interval approach to investigating non-response bias and monitoring response to postal questionnaires.

STUDY OBJECTIVE The aim was to develop an alternative method of investigating non-response bias in postal surveys, including a method of calculating a final full (100%) coverage confidence interval which avoids the wide intervals of existing approaches. DESIGN AND SETTING As part of a two stage survey of disablement in the community, a first phase postal questionnaire was sent to 25,168 house...