Gallagher P M, Fowler F J, Stringfellow V L
Center for Survey Research, University of Massachusetts, Boston 02125, USA.
Med Care. 1999 Mar;37(3 Suppl):MS50-8. doi: 10.1097/00005650-199903001-00006.
This study was done to assess the feasibility of respondent selection by mail to obtain random samples of both child and adult enrollees of health plans when only subscriber contact information is available.
The subjects were enrollees of health plans covered under the policies of employees of the State of Washington. Subscribers were eligible for inclusion in the study samples if they had been enrolled for at least 6 months and, depending on the test, had at least one child and/or a spouse enrolled under their policy. Subjects were randomly assigned to six groups: three approaches for sampling children, two approaches for sampling adults, and one test of parents' willingness to return a questionnaire about themselves. Child selection protocols involved asking respondents to complete either a child-only or a dual questionnaire, asking them to follow a decision rule to choose a sample person, and collecting data in two phases, asking respondents to return material twice.
Results indicated that asking subscribers to select an adult respondent by mail was not a success. At least given the procedures we used, adults did not demonstrate good compliance with the respondent selection process offered them. In contrast, parents proved willing to follow a more complicated child selection rule and to do it nearly perfectly.
Parents will follow a decision rule to select an eligible child, but requiring this additional respondent selection step may be associated with a slightly decreased response rate. Asking parents to return materials twice is feasible, but it is too cumbersome a procedure to be practical. It is possible to collect data about both an adult and a child using a dual instrument; however, the increase in information is tempered by a decrease in response rates.
本研究旨在评估在仅可获取订阅者联系信息的情况下，通过邮件选择受访者以获取健康计划儿童和成人参保者随机样本的可行性。
研究对象为华盛顿州员工保险政策覆盖的健康计划参保者。若订阅者已参保至少6个月，且根据测试情况，其保险政策下至少有一个孩子和/或配偶参保，则有资格纳入研究样本。研究对象被随机分为六组：三种抽取儿童样本的方法、两种抽取成人样本的方法，以及一项关于父母是否愿意返还其自身问卷的测试。儿童选择方案包括要求受访者填写仅关于孩子的问卷或双重问卷，要求他们遵循决策规则选择一个样本对象，并分两个阶段收集数据，即要求受访者返还材料两次。
结果表明，通过邮件要求订阅者选择一名成年受访者并不成功。至少就我们使用的程序而言，成年人对提供给他们的受访者选择过程并未表现出良好的依从性。相比之下，父母愿意遵循更复杂的儿童选择规则，并且几乎能完美执行。
父母会遵循决策规则选择符合条件的孩子，但要求这一额外的受访者选择步骤可能会导致回复率略有下降。要求父母返还材料两次是可行的，但该程序过于繁琐，不切实际。使用双重问卷有可能收集关于成人和儿童的数据；然而，信息的增加被回复率的下降所抵消。
