经济激励对健康研究人员在线调查回复率的影响：一项随机对照试验。

Effects of a financial incentive on health researchers' response to an online survey: a randomized controlled trial.

作者信息

Wilson Paul M, Petticrew Mark, Calnan Mike, Nazareth Irwin

机构信息

Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, York, United Kingdom.

出版信息

J Med Internet Res. 2010 May 10;12(2):e13. doi: 10.2196/jmir.1251.

DOI:10.2196/jmir.1251

PMID:20457556

原文链接:https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2885780/

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Nonresponse to questionnaires can affect the validity of surveys and introduce bias. Offering financial incentives can increase response rates to postal questionnaires, but the effect of financial incentives on response rates to online surveys is less clear.

OBJECTIVE

As part of a survey, we aimed to test whether knowledge of a financial incentive would increase the response rate to an online questionnaire.

METHODS

A randomized controlled trial of 485 UK-based principal investigators of publicly funded health services and population health research. Participants were contacted by email and invited to complete an online questionnaire via an embedded URL. Participants were randomly allocated to groups with either "knowledge of" or "no knowledge of" a financial incentive ( pound10 Amazon gift voucher) to be provided on completion of the survey. At the end of the study, gift vouchers were given to all participants who completed the questionnaire regardless of initial randomization status. Four reminder emails (sent from the same email address as the initial invitation) were sent out to nonrespondents at one, two, three, and four weeks; a fifth postal reminder was also undertaken. The primary outcome measure for the trial was the response rate one week after the second reminder. Response rate was also measured at the end of weeks one, two, three, four, and five, and after a postal reminder was sent.

RESULTS

In total, 243 (50%) questionnaires were returned (232 completed, 11 in which participation was declined). One week after the second reminder, the response rate in the "knowledge" group was 27% (66/244) versus 20% (49/241) in the "no knowledge" group (chi(2) (1) = 3.0, P = .08). The odds ratio for responding among those with knowledge of an incentive was 1.45 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.95 - 2.21). At the third reminder, participants in the "no knowledge" group were informed about the incentive, ending the randomized element of the study. However we continued to follow up all participants, and from reminder three onwards, no significant differences were observed in the response rates of the two groups.

CONCLUSIONS

Knowledge of a financial incentive did not significantly increase the response rate to an online questionnaire. Future surveys should consider including a randomized element to further test the utility of offering incentives of other types and amounts to participate in online questionnaires.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ISRCTN59912797; http://www.controlled-trials.com/ISRCTN59912797 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5iPPLbT7s).

摘要

背景

对调查问卷无回应会影响调查的有效性并引入偏差。提供经济激励可以提高邮寄问卷的回应率，但经济激励对在线调查回应率的影响尚不清楚。

目的

作为一项调查的一部分，我们旨在测试知晓经济激励是否会提高在线问卷的回应率。

方法

对485名英国公共资助的卫生服务和人群健康研究的主要研究者进行了一项随机对照试验。通过电子邮件联系参与者，并邀请他们通过嵌入式网址完成一份在线问卷。参与者被随机分配到知晓或不知晓完成调查后将获得经济激励（10英镑亚马逊礼品券）的组。在研究结束时，无论最初的随机分组情况如何，所有完成问卷的参与者都获得了礼品券。向未回应者在第1、2、3和4周发送了4封提醒电子邮件（从与初始邀请相同的电子邮件地址发送）；还进行了第五次邮寄提醒。该试验的主要结局指标是第二次提醒后一周的回应率。在第1、2、3、4和5周结束时以及发送邮寄提醒后也测量了回应率。

结果

总共返回了243份（50%）问卷（232份完成，11份拒绝参与）。第二次提醒后一周，“知晓”组的回应率为27%（66/244），而“不知晓”组为20%（49/241）（χ²(1)=3.0，P = 0.08）。知晓激励措施的参与者回应的优势比为1.45（95%置信区间[CI]0.95 - 2.21）。在第三次提醒时，“不知晓”组的参与者被告知有激励措施，从而结束了研究的随机部分。然而，我们继续对所有参与者进行随访，从第三次提醒开始，两组的回应率没有观察到显著差异。