Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2005 Aug 18:5:55.
doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-5-55.

The effect of a monetary incentive on return of a postal health and development questionnaire: a randomised trial [ISRCTN53994660]

Sara Kenyon  1 , Katie Pike, David Jones, David Taylor, Alison Salt, Neil Marlow, Peter Brocklehurst
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

The effect of a monetary incentive on return of a postal health and development questionnaire: a randomised trial [ISRCTN53994660]

Sara Kenyon et al. BMC Health Serv Res. .

Abstract

Background: Postal questionnaires are widely used to collect data in healthcare research but a poor response rate may reduce the validity and reliability of results. There was a lack of evidence available relating to use of a monetary incentive to improve the response rate in the healthcare setting.

Methods: The MRC ORACLE Children Study is assessing the health and development of nearly 9000 seven year old children whose mothers' joined the MRC ORACLE Trial. We carried out a randomised controlled trial of inclusion of monetary incentive (five pound voucher redeemable at many high street stores) with the reminder questionnaire to parents. This trial took place between April 2002 and November 2003. When the parents were sent the reminder questionnaire about their child's health and development they were randomly assigned by concealed computer-generated allocation stratified by week of birthday to receive a five pound voucher or no incentive. The population were 722 non-responders to the initial mailing of a 12-page questionnaire.

Main outcome measures: Difference in response rate between the two groups.

Results: Inclusion of the voucher with the reminder questionnaire resulted in a 11.7%(95% CI 4.7% to 18.6%) improvement in the response rate between the two groups.

Conclusion: This improvement in response rate and hence the validity and reliability of results obtained appears to be justified ethically and financially.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Consort flow diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Edwards P, Roberts I, Clarke M, Di Guiseppi C, Pratap S, Wentz R, et al. Increasing response rates to postal questionnaire: systemic review. BMJ. 2002;324:1183–1185. doi: 10.1136/bmj.324.7347.1183. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Smeeth L, Fletcher AE, Editorial Improving response rates to questionnaires. BMJ. 2002;324:1168–1169. doi: 10.1136/bmj.324.7347.1168. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Edwards P, Roberts I, Clarke M, DiGuiseppi C, Pratap S, Wentz R, Kwan I, Cooper R. Methods to increase response rates to postal questionnaires. The Cochrane Database of Methodology Reviews. 2003. Issue 4.Art No.:MR000008.pub2.DOI: 10.1002/14651858.MR000008.pub2. - PubMed
    1. Kenyon SL, Taylor DJ, Tarnow-Mordi W, ORACLE Collaborative Group Broad-spectrum antibiotics for preterm, prelabour rupture of fetal membranes: the ORACLE I randomised trial. Lancet. 2001;357:979–988. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(00)04233-1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kenyon SL, Taylor DJ, Tarnow-Mordi W, ORACLE Collaborative Group Broad-spectrum antibiotics for spontaneous preterm labour: the ORACLE II randomised trial. Lancet. 2001;357:989–994. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(00)04234-3. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

Associated data