Faria M C, Mateus C L, Coelho F, Martins R, Barros H
Serviço de Higiene e Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Medicina do Porto.
Acta Med Port. 1997 Jan;10(1):61-5.
Although not frequently used in Portugal, postal questionnaires allow the collection of information on patient's follow-up. In this study we assessed the rate of response and the usefulness of a postal questionnaire in a sample of patients with acute stroke. A prospective study was designed and analysed as a case-control: postal questionnaires were sent to 138 patients together with a randomly assigned stamped or post-free return envelope. The percentage of responders was 60% (n=78) and we found no significant differences in response rates according to the mailing strategy (58% for stamped and 62% for post-free return envelopes, p = 0.786). The time gap between hospital discharge and sending of the questionnaire had no significant influence in the response rate. Elder patients and women tend to respond more frequently, but these characteristics also do not change the response rate. Analysing socio-demographic variables reported at the acute phase, we only found differences in response rate for the smoking status: smoking was associated with a lower participation. In conclusion, the present study showed that a postal questionnaire is a useful method for the follow-up of stroke cases and that we must pay special attention to smokers for whom alternative strategies of contact or information should be used to increase compliance with postal questionnaire follow-up.
尽管邮政问卷在葡萄牙并不常用，但它可用于收集患者随访信息。在本研究中，我们评估了邮政问卷在急性中风患者样本中的回复率及实用性。我们设计了一项前瞻性研究，并作为病例对照研究进行分析：向138名患者发送了邮政问卷，并随机附上贴邮票或免邮资的回邮信封。回复率为60%（n = 78），我们发现根据邮寄策略的回复率无显著差异（贴邮票信封的回复率为58%，免邮资回邮信封的回复率为62%，p = 0.786）。出院与发送问卷之间的时间间隔对回复率无显著影响。老年患者和女性的回复频率往往更高，但这些特征也不会改变回复率。分析急性期报告的社会人口统计学变量时，我们仅发现吸烟状况的回复率存在差异：吸烟与较低的参与度相关。总之，本研究表明邮政问卷是中风病例随访的一种有用方法，对于吸烟者我们必须特别关注，应为他们采用其他联系或信息提供策略，以提高对邮政问卷随访的依从性。
