Trial reportEvaluation & the health professions2011
Effects of incentives and prenotification on response rates and costs in a national web survey of physicians.
Trial report in Evaluation & the health professions, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Methods to increase response to postal and electronic questionnaires.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Does advance contact with research participants increase response to questionnaires: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC medical research methodology · 2021Pooled it
- Trial
- Testing the Impact of Mixed-Mode Designs (Mail and Web) and Multiple Contact Attempts within Mode (Mail or Web) on Clinician Survey Response.Health services research · 2018Trial
- Trial
- Rates, Delays, and Completeness of General Practitioners' Responses to a Postal Versus Web-Based Survey: A Randomized Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2017Trial
- Incentive and Reminder Strategies to Improve Response Rate for Internet-Based Physician Surveys: A Randomized Experiment.Journal of medical Internet research · 2016Trial
- Diabetes in rural towns: effectiveness of continuing education and feedback for healthcare providers in altering diabetes outcomes at a population level: protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial.Implementation science : IS · 2013Trial
- A Randomized Experiment of Mailed Incentives to Improve Emergency Physician Survey Participation.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2026Article
- Participation Rates in 11 National Dental Practice-Based Research Network Surveys 2014-2022.Evaluation & the health professions · 2025Article
- Physician perspectives on discussions around the sexual health and function of gynecologic cancer patients.Gynecologic oncology reports · 2025Article
- Care delivery approaches and perceived barriers to improving quality of care: A national survey of skilled nursing facilities.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2023Article
- The relative importance of treatment outcomes to surgeons' recommendations for low-risk thyroid cancer.Surgery · 2023Article
- Perspectives of Wisconsin Providers on Factors Influencing Receipt of Post-Mastectomy Breast Reconstruction.Clinical breast cancer · 2022Article
- Effects of Sequential Prepaid Incentives on Response Rates, Data Quality, Sample Representativeness, and Costs in a Mail Survey of Physicians.Evaluation & the health professions · 2021Article
- The Effect of the Familiarity of a Survey Sender on Response Outcomes in a Large-Scale Survey of Emergency Medical Services Agencies.Evaluation & the health professions · 2021Article
- Lessons Learned in a Physician Referral to Pediatric Telemental Health Services Program.Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry = Journal de l'Academie canadienne de psychiatrie de l'enfant et de l'adolescent · 2019Article
- Race/Ethnicity and Success in Academic Medicine: Findings From a Longitudinal Multi-Institutional Study.Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges · 2018Article
- A method for achieving high response rates in national surveys of U.S. primary care physicians.PloS one · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Little is known about what strategies are cost-effective in increasing participation among physicians in surveys that are conducted exclusively via the web. To assess the effects of incentives and prenotification on response rates and costs, general internists (N = 3,550) were randomly selected from the American Medical Association (AMA) Masterfile and assigned to experimental groups that varied in the amount of a promised incentive (none, entry into a $200 lottery, $50, or $100) and prenotification (none, prenotification letter only, or prenotification letter containing a $2 preincentive). Results indicated that the response rates were highest in the groups promised $100 and $50, respectively. While the postal prenotification letter increased response rates, the inclusion of a small token $2 preincentive had no effect on participation. Further, unlike mail surveys of physicians, the $2 preincentive was not cost-effective. Among physicians, larger promised incentives of $50 or $100 are more effective than a nominal preincentive in increasing participation in a web-only survey. Consistent with prior research, there was little evidence of nonresponse bias among the experimental groups.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.