Physician Response Rates to Mail and Personal Interview Surveys

This paper reports the outcome of a randomized experiment, sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration, which compares mail and persona) administration of a 12-page questionnaire dealing with physician antibiotic prescription practices. To overcome the barrier created by the lack of clearly defined and accepted definitons of survey outcomes, the authors introduce six concepts for describing and comparing survey outcomes. Overall, mail surveys appear to require less time, to be less costly, and to generate higher response rates than equivalent personal contacts. The report describes methods for gaining maximum benefit from the mail technique.Herschel Shosteck is president of Herschel Shosteck Associates, Silver Spring, Maryland, Director of Survey Research and Evaluation for Data Transformation Corporation, and a member of the adjunct faculty of the University of Maryland. William Fairweather is a Group Leader in the Statistical Evaluation Branch, Division of Biometrics, Bureau of Drugs of the US. Food and Drug Administration. This study was carried out under Contract No. 223–75–3007, Food and Drug Administration, Public Health Service, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Food and Drug Administration. Special thanks are due to Ann Hadley and Diane Sickles of Westat Corporation; T. McLemore, Survey Statistician of the National Center for Health Statistics; Dr. Barbara A. Bailar, Chief, Research Center for Measurement Methods, U.S. Bureau of the Census; Alan B. Chuman, Research Associate, Rhode Island Health Services Research; Dr. Paul L. Erdos, President, Erdos and Morgan, Inc., Research Service; Dr. Harrison G. Gough, Department of Psychology, University of California at Berkeley; and Larry Love, Assistant Division Chief for Research and Methodology, Field Division, U.S. Bureau of the Census.