Evaluating Incentive Effects in the National Health Study for a New Generation of U.S. Veterans Survey

• Activity Number: 593
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 4, 2010 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Pablo Aliaga*+ and Steven Coughlin and Samar DeBakey and Patricia Vanderwolf and Shannon Barth and Stephanie Eber and Jessica Maillard and Meredith Williams and Aaron Schneiderman
• Companies: Health Research and Analysis and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Health Research and Analysis and Abt SRBI and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and HMS Technologies and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• Keywords: incentive ; response rate ; bias

Abstract

Surveys are useful in addressing health issues. Few studies have explored incentives to boost participation among US Veterans. The relationship between incentives, response rates and respondent representativeness was explored during the pilot phase of a multimode Department of Veterans Affairs health survey. Subjects (n=3000) were randomized into promised, prepaid and no cash incentive groups. Excluding those who were never reached (n=561), the response rate was 26.3% (642 questionnaires completed); the rates by incentive type were: 21.1%, 27.9% and 29.8% for the 'None,' 'Promised' and 'Prepaid' groups respectively. Incentives increased response while shifting the distribution of military and personal characteristics compared to the sample distribution. Based on pilot results, a $10 prepaid incentive and baseline quality assurance and control measures were adopted for the main survey.