Ford Rosemary, Bammer Gabriele
School of Nursing, Australian Catholic University, Victoria.
Nurse Res. 2009;17(1):44-53. doi: 10.7748/nr2009.10.17.1.44.c7338.
Low response rates to postal surveys potentially bias study results. We used three approaches to determine why 46 per cent of a sample were non-responders, and to analyse any potential bias. Labour force data, telephone interviews with a number of non-responders and trend examination showed that our study sample was no different to the known nursing population, that there were few differences between responders and non-responders and that there were no trends in differences between early and late responders respectively. Results suggest 'intenders', or potential responders who do not complete and return the survey, are a key factor in non-response in surveys of nurses. Analysis for response bias increases confidence in the interpretations and conclusions of any study and should therefore become standard survey practice.
邮寄调查的低回复率可能会使研究结果产生偏差。我们采用了三种方法来确定为什么样本中有46%的人没有回复，并分析任何潜在的偏差。劳动力数据、对一些未回复者的电话访谈以及趋势分析表明，我们的研究样本与已知的护士群体没有差异，回复者和未回复者之间几乎没有差异，并且早期回复者和晚期回复者之间也没有差异趋势。结果表明，“意向者”，即那些没有完成并返还调查问卷的潜在回复者，是护士调查中无回复现象的一个关键因素。对回复偏差的分析增加了对任何研究的解释和结论的信心，因此应该成为标准的调查做法。
