An examination of nonresponse in a work environment questionnaire mailed to psychiatric health care personnel

Abstract

Nonresponse to surveys, which seems to plague work environment studies and studies of health care personnel in particular, may pose problems of generalizability and validity. The aim of this study was to provide an estimate of nonresponse error in a self-administered survey concerning the work environment of psychiatric health care personnel. A random sample of 10% of the original survey population (N = 693) was selected to participate in a telephone follow-up of a postal survey that had a response rate of 51%. There were no differences between the responders and nonresponders to the postal survey on the exposure or outcome variables. There was no evidence of nonresponse bias in this study, although recall bias may have been a problem. In those cases in which generalizability is deemed important, it is recommended that nonresponse studies be regularly carried out when response rates are less than 100%.