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Posted by Sherman Whipple on January 25, 2000 at 14:03:44:
In Reply to: Incentives for M.D. Mail Survey posted by Al Schlimm on January 25, 2000 at 09:18:38:
Over the last 20 years, I have done a number of projects involving physicians, practices, medical offices and other related healtcare audiences, including media penetration and effectiveness research. Of these, doctors are probably the most difficult to sample due to non-response and skew from those who do respond. We have, however, found that by using a high quality presentation, a compelling premise and the reserch response check instrument with a charitable donation option, we can push the response to 65% or better to minimize uncertainty, error and skew.
This said, however, my experinece with sampling doctors has left me with a bizzare imponderable. When I first tried the research response check, I believe in the amount of $20, with no charitable donation option, we only recieved something in the range of a 30% response. Then, when we added the charitable donation option in a subsequent study, but cut the amount of the check to $10, we recieved somethiing like a 70% response, but only 10% or so went to charity, the rest of the checks were cashed by the doctor's themselves. This has been quite consistent, both for the benchmarks we have done ourselves, and those we have designed under subcontact for other researchers. Conversely, when we use the charitable donation option for senior managment or civil service tests, a third or more send the completed instruments to a charity.
The point is, the incentive alone is not enough to ensure a representative response or even to increase it sufficiently to justify the added expense, rather you must motivate the doctor with a complling reason to particiapte. For example, we recieved a 65% response on a survey using no incentive from doctors beacause the subject matter being tested was near and dear to their hearts. Had we used the check and charitable donation option, it could easily have gone over 90%. This was not because of the money involved, but because the check is a more convenient way for the respondent to participate, and this was a topic on which every doctor wanted to be heard.
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