Wagner James, West Brady T, Couper Mick P, Zhang Shiyu, Gatward Rebecca, Nishimura Raphael, Saw Htay-Wah
Research Professor, with the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, USA.
Research Associate Professor, with the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, USA.
J Surv Stat Methodol. 2022 Jul 12;11(1):124-140. doi: 10.1093/jssam/smac024. eCollection 2023 Feb.
Survey researchers have carefully modified their data collection operations for various reasons, including the rising costs of data collection and the ongoing Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, both of which have made in-person interviewing difficult. For large national surveys that require household (HH) screening to determine survey eligibility, cost-efficient screening methods that do not include in-person visits need additional evaluation and testing. A new study, known as the American Family Health Study (AFHS), recently initiated data collection with a national probability sample, using a sequential mixed-mode mail/web protocol for push-to-web US HH screening (targeting persons aged 18-49 years). To better understand optimal approaches for this type of national screening effort, we embedded two randomized experiments in the AFHS data collection. The first tested the use of bilingual respondent materials where mailed invitations to the screener were sent in both English and Spanish to 50 percent of addresses with a high predicted likelihood of having a Spanish speaker and 10 percent of all other addresses. We found that the bilingual approach did not increase the response rate of high-likelihood Spanish-speaking addresses, but consistent with prior work, it increased the proportion of eligible Hispanic respondents identified among completed screeners, especially among addresses predicted to have a high likelihood of having Spanish speakers. The second tested a form of nonresponse follow-up, where a subsample of active sampled HHs that had not yet responded to the screening invitations was sent a priority mailing with a $5 incentive, adding to the $2 incentive provided for all sampled HHs in the initial screening invitation. We found this approach to be quite valuable for increasing the screening survey response rate.
调查研究人员出于各种原因仔细修改了他们的数据收集操作，包括数据收集成本的上升和持续的冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行，这两者都使得面对面访谈变得困难。对于需要进行家庭（HH）筛查以确定调查资格的大型全国性调查，不包括面对面访问的具有成本效益的筛查方法需要进行额外的评估和测试。一项名为美国家庭健康研究（AFHS）的新研究最近开始使用全国概率样本进行数据收集，采用顺序混合模式邮件/网络协议进行美国HH的网络推送筛查（针对18至49岁的人群）。为了更好地理解这类全国性筛查工作的最佳方法，我们在AFHS数据收集中嵌入了两个随机实验。第一个实验测试了双语受访者材料的使用，其中向50%预测有说西班牙语者可能性高的地址以及10%的所有其他地址发送了英语和西班牙语的筛选器邮寄邀请。我们发现双语方法并没有提高高可能性说西班牙语地址的回复率，但与先前的研究一致，它增加了在完成筛查者中识别出的符合条件的西班牙裔受访者的比例，特别是在预测有说西班牙语者可能性高的地址中。第二个实验测试了一种无回应跟进形式，即向尚未回复筛查邀请的活跃抽样HH子样本发送一封带有5美元激励的优先邮件，这是在初始筛查邀请中为所有抽样HH提供的2美元激励之外的。我们发现这种方法对于提高筛查调查的回复率非常有价值。
