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. 2024 Mar-Apr;139(2):255-262.
doi: 10.1177/00333549231168640. Epub 2023 May 2.

Engaging Public Health Alumni in the Tracking of Career Trends: Results From a Large-Scale Experiment on Survey Fielding Mode

Jonathon P Leider  1 , Todd H Rockwood  1 , Heidi Mastrud  1 , Timothy J Beebe  1
Affiliations

Engaging Public Health Alumni in the Tracking of Career Trends: Results From a Large-Scale Experiment on Survey Fielding Mode

Jonathon P Leider et al. Public Health Rep. 2024 Mar-Apr.

Abstract

Objective: We sought to understand the relative impact of fielding mode on response rate among public health alumni.

Methods: As part of the 2021 Career Trends Survey of alumni from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, we designed a fielding mode experiment to ascertain whether a paper survey, a postcard with a custom survey link ("postcard push-to-web"), a mobile telephone call or text (mobile), or an email invitation would garner the highest response rates. Invitations were randomly assigned from available contact information.

Results: Of 8531 alumni invited, 1671 alumni (19.6%) completed the survey. Among the initial fielding modes, the paper survey had the highest response rate (28%), followed by mobile (19%), email (10%), and postcard push-to-web (10%). More robust recent engagement with alumni relations, paper survey invitation or mode switch, and recent graduation were all significantly associated with a higher likelihood of response.

Conclusions: Paper and mobile invitations had the highest response rates to our survey among public health alumni. Findings from this fielding mode experiment are relevant to schools and programs of public health seeking to capture similar information among their alumni, especially given current trends in investment in the public health workforce.

Keywords: alumni study; fielding experiment; survey design.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Response rates of alumni of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health to the University of Minnesota Career Trends Survey, January–March 2021, by fielding mode.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Odds of completion of the University of Minnesota Career Trends Survey by alumni of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, January–March 2021. The dependent variable was survey completion within 10 weeks for the web-based survey and completion of the paper survey (accounts for mail delays during the survey period). Odds ratios were adjusted for engagement with University of Minnesota alumni relations in the previous calendar year, fielding mode of invite, and fielding mode of switch, graduation year, degree type, and number of contact options (eg, email only, email + mobile telephone, email + mobile telephone + postal mail). Results from adjusted odds ratios from logistic regression were significant at P < .05. Error bars indicate 95% CIs. Constant not shown (adjusted odds ratio = 0.07; 95% CI, 0.04-0.11; P < .001). Abbreviations: MHA, master of health administration; MPH, master of public health; MS, master of science; PhD, doctor of philosophy.
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