Ngo-Metzger Quyen, Kaplan Sherrie H, Sorkin Dara H, Clarridge Brian R, Phillips Russell S
Division of General Medicine and Primary Care, University of California Irvine College of Medicine, Irvine, California, USA.
Med Care. 2004 Sep;42(9):893-900. doi: 10.1097/01.mlr.0000135819.15178.bc.
Little is known about how modes of survey administration affect response rates and data quality among populations with limited-English proficiency (LEP). Asian Americans are a rapidly growing minority group with large numbers of LEP immigrants.
We sought to compare the response rates and data quality of interviewer-administered telephone and self-administered mail surveys among LEP Asian Americans.
This was a randomized, cross-sectional study using a 78-item survey about quality of medical care that was given to Vietnamese, Mandarin, or Cantonese Chinese patients in their native language.
We examined response rates and missing data by mode of survey and language groups. To examine nonresponse bias, we compared the sociodemographic characteristics of respondents and nonrespondents. To assess response patterns, we compared the internal-consistency reliability coefficients across modes and language groups.
We achieved an overall response rate of 67% (322 responses of 479 patients surveyed). A higher response rate was achieved by phone interviews (75%) as compared with mail surveys with telephone reminder calls (59%). There were no significant differences in response rates by language group. The mean number of missing item for the mail mode was 4.14 versus 1.67 for the phone mode (P< or =0.000). There were no significant differences in missing data among the language groups and no significant differences in scale reliability coefficients by modes or language groups.
Telephone interviews and mail surveys with phone reminder calls are feasible options to survey LEP Chinese and Vietnamese Americans. These methods may be less costly and labor-intensive ways to include LEP minorities in research.
对于调查管理方式如何影响英语水平有限（LEP）人群的回应率和数据质量，我们知之甚少。亚裔美国人是一个快速增长的少数族裔群体，其中有大量英语水平有限的移民。
我们试图比较在英语水平有限的亚裔美国人中，访员进行的电话调查和自行填写的邮寄调查的回应率和数据质量。
这是一项随机横断面研究，使用了一份关于医疗质量的78项调查问卷，以越南语、普通话或粤语以母语形式发放给华裔患者。
我们按调查方式和语言群体检查了回应率和缺失数据。为了检查无回应偏差，我们比较了回应者和未回应者的社会人口学特征。为了评估回应模式，我们比较了不同方式和语言群体之间的内部一致性信度系数。
我们的总体回应率为67%（479名被调查患者中有322人回应）。电话访谈的回应率（75%）高于带有电话提醒的邮寄调查（59%）。按语言群体划分的回应率没有显著差异。邮寄方式的平均缺失项目数为4.14，而电话方式为1.67（P≤0.000）。语言群体之间在缺失数据方面没有显著差异，不同方式或语言群体在量表信度系数方面也没有显著差异。
电话访谈和带有电话提醒的邮寄调查是调查英语水平有限的华裔和越裔美国人的可行选择。这些方法可能是将英语水平有限的少数族裔纳入研究的成本较低且劳动强度较小的方式。
