Transitioning from RDD to ABS with Mail as the Primary Mode

• Activity Number: 633
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 2, 2012 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Jill M. Montaquila*+ and J. Michael Brick
• Companies: Westat and Westat
• Keywords: Address based sampling ; Methodology ; Experiment ; Redesign

Abstract

After nearly two decades as a landline RDD survey, the National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) was redesigned in 2009 to an address-based sample (ABS) with mail as the primary mode. To determine household eligibility and do within-household sampling requires two phases of data collection: A Screener followed by a Topical survey in eligible households. To transition, we conducted a pilot study in 2009 and a large-scale methodological field test in 2011. These tests included embedded experiments designed to examine the effects of alternative approaches on response and coverage rates. The transition to this ABS approach has been successful for NHES, with the NHES:2011 Field Test attaining higher response and coverage rates than those attained in the most recent NHES landline RDD administration. In this paper, we describe the considerations that led to the decision for NHES to transition to ABS, and the data collection approaches taken, and compare these to alternative approaches taken by others. We present overall findings from the Field Test and use results of the embedded experiments to discuss the implications for increasing response in a two-phase survey setting.