Recruitment Burden Data: Collection Methods and Emerging Trends (303318)

Keywords: recruitment, recruitment burden, remuneration, incentives, response rate, metrics

Recruitment is pivotal to the success of cognitive interview projects that involve questionnaire design and evaluation. Recruitment ensures that respondents are sampled from diversified and specific socio-demographic groups, depending on the sample criteria of a project and the survey questions. Few empirical studies have explored the efficiency of recruitment methods concerned with response rate issues. This study assesses how recruitment burden is affected by remuneration amount, population type, and survey mode.

The Centers for Questionnaire Design and Evaluation Research (CQDER) at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has collected recruitment burden data since February 2014. This study analyzed recruitment data across 20 cognitive interview projects conducted between February 2014 and February 2016. Recruitment burden was measured using: number of calls made by the recruiter, number of screened and eligible individuals, number of scheduled individuals, number of “no-shows” or interview cancelations, and the total number of completed interviews.

The findings showed that remuneration amount and population type was correlated to recruitment burden. Respondents in the data set received either $0, $40, $50, or $100 in remuneration. The no-show rate was significantly lower for studies that provided $100 remuneration rather than $40 or $50 remuneration. The population types included establishment populations and household populations. Calls per complete was significantly higher for establishment studies than for household studies. The no-show rate was significantly lower for establishment studies than for household studies.

The current literature on cognitive interview recruitment is sparse. This study helps fill the gap in current literature on recruitment, recruitment metrics, and response rate issues. The qualitative research community can benefit from studies that adopt recruitment burden metrics such as the metrics defined in this study.