Bergsten J W, Weeks M F, Bryan F A
Public Opin Q. 1984 Fall;48(3):650-7. doi: 10.1086/268866.
During October and November 1982, 1,260 Medicare-eligible senior citizens were interviewed in a survey focusing on health care of the elderly. As part of the survey, an experiment was conducted in each of the three survey sites to determine the effects of an advance telephone call to schedule an appointment for a personal interview. One random half sample in each site was sent a lead letter, followed by a telephone call to schedule a personal interview. The other half sample was sent a lead letter followed by a personal contact, with no intervening telephone call. Telephoning to arrange an appointment for a personal interview resulted in a 20 percent saving in data collection costs with only a 1 percent decrease in response rate.
1982年10月至11月期间，对1260名符合医疗保险条件的老年人进行了访谈，该调查聚焦于老年人的医疗保健。作为调查的一部分，在三个调查地点分别进行了一项实验，以确定提前打电话预约个人访谈的效果。每个地点的随机抽取的一半样本收到一封引导信，随后接到一个预约个人访谈的电话。另一半样本收到引导信后进行了个人联系，中间没有电话沟通。打电话安排个人访谈使数据收集成本节省了20%，而回应率仅下降了1%。
