Surveys reflect societal change in a way that few other research tools do. Over the past two decades, three developments have transformed surveys. First, survey organizations have adopted new methods for selecting telephone samples; these new methods were made possible by the creation of large databases that include all listed telephone numbers in the United States. A second development has bee...

OBJECTIVE Physicians have been surveyed concerning their satisfaction with poison center services but have never been questioned regarding their expectations. This study was conducted to clarify the expectations of emergency physicians in New Mexico regarding the service of their regional poison center, the New Mexico Poison and Drug Information Center. DESIGN Five New Mexico emergency depart...

BACKGROUND To address three methodological challenges when attempting to measure patients' experiences and views of a system of inter-related health services rather than a single service: the feasibility of a population survey for identifying system users, the optimal recall period for system use, and the mode of administration which is most feasible and representative in the context of routine...

BACKGROUND Measurement of socioeconomic position (SEP) over the life course in population health surveillance systems is important for examining differences in health and illness between different population groups and for monitoring the impact of policies and interventions aimed at reducing health inequities and intergenerational disadvantage over time. While face-to-face surveys are considere...

The rationale for the use of an advance respondent letter is based on the experience of survey researchers that contact before an actual interview attempt “warmsup” respondents, hopefully making them more positively disposed toward participation than if they were only to receive a “cold call.” The logic is that using advance respondent letters will increase response rates, thereby reducing the ...

OBJECTIVE To estimate landline telephone coverage effects on potential information bias in epidemiological surveys. METHODS Databases of the Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios (National Household Sample Survey), from 1998 to 2003, were used to estimate landline telephone coverage rates in the five Brazilian geographic regions. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify factors...

OBJECTIVE Examine the effect of including cell-phone numbers in a traditional landline random digit dial (RDD) telephone survey. DATA SOURCES The 2007 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS). DATA COLLECTION METHODS CHIS 2007 is an RDD telephone survey supplementing a landline sample in California with a sample of cell-only (CO) adults. STUDY DESIGN We examined the degree of bias due to...

This report describes the results of an evaluation of random-digit-dialed sampling and telephone data collection procedures for the collection of health interview data from households. The study design included the following components: a comparison of data obtained by personal interview using area probability sampling with that obtained by telephone interview using random-digit-dialed sampling...