Safety Screening in the NIS RDD Cell-Phone Sample
Becky Reimer
NORC at the University of Chicago
Benjamin Skalland
NORC at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Jacquelyn George
NORC at the University of Chicago
Qiao Ma
NORC at the University of Chicago
James A. Singleton
National Center for Infectious and Respiratory Diseases
For cell-phone surveying, respondent safety is an important ethical consideration. Since 2010, the cell-phone safety screening item used on the National Immunization Surveys (NIS) has been "If you are currently driving a car or doing anything that requires your full attention I need to call you back at a later time." Using guidelines from the AAPOR Cell Phone Task Force, NORC's Institutional Review Board (IRB) suggested that the item be modified to refer more generally to respondent safety and avoid referring to driving. In addition, the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Ethics Review Board (ERB) requested that the item be phrased as a question, requiring explicit agreement from the respondent. Because any change to the item wording could have substantial impacts on response rates and costs, an evaluation was conducted to test the original version of the item against two alternate versions that incorporated the IRB and ERB feedback before any changes were implemented. We describe the design and results of the evaluation, including the impact on response rates and how this work may apply to other surveys that dial random digit dial (RDD) cell-phone samples.