Trial reportThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners1997
The effect of cash and other financial inducements on the response rate of general practitioners in a national postal study.
Trial report in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 1997. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 4 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
27 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Methods to increase response to postal and electronic questionnaires.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Survey Fatigue During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Neurosurgery Survey Response Rates.Frontiers in surgery · 2021Pooled it
- The effectiveness of recruitment strategies on general practitioner's survey response rates - a systematic review.BMC medical research methodology · 2014Pooled it
- Methods to increase response to postal and electronic questionnaires.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2009Pooled it
- What impact do questionnaire length and monetary incentives have on mailed health psychology survey response?British journal of health psychology · 2017Trial
- National survey of physicians to determine the effect of unconditional incentives on response rates of physician postal surveys.BMJ open · 2015Trial
- Recruitment and retention in a multicentre randomised controlled trial in Bell's palsy: a case study.BMC medical research methodology · 2007Trial
- A randomised controlled trial to determine the effect on response of including a lottery incentive in health surveys [ISRCTN32203485].BMC health services research · 2004Trial
- Effect of timed incentives on subject participation in a study of long-term breast cancer survivors: are there ethnic differences?Journal of the National Medical Association · 2000Trial
- Testing a decoy donation incentive to improve online survey participation: Evidence from a field experiment.PloS one · 2024Article
- Health Service Utilisation, Detection Rates by Family Practitioners, and Management of Patients with Common Mental Disorders in French Family Practice.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2017Article
- Evaluating survey quality in health services research: a decision framework for assessing nonresponse bias.Health services research · 2013Article
- Enhancing field GP engagement in hospital-based studies. Rationale, design, main results and participation in the Diagest 3-GP motivation study.BMC family practice · 2012Article
- Annual influenza vaccination: coverage and attitudes of primary care staff in Australia.Influenza and other respiratory viruses · 2011Article
- Beliefs and attitudes of French family practitioners toward depression: the impact of training in mental health.International journal of psychiatry in medicine · 2011Article
- Role of the general practitioner in the care of patients recently discharged from the hospital after a first psychotic episode: influence of length of stay.The primary care companion for CNS disorders · 2011Article
- When anxiety symptoms masquerade as medical symptoms: what medical specialists know about panic disorder and available psychological treatments.Journal of clinical psychology in medical settings · 2008Article
- Effects of various methodologic strategies: survey response rates among Canadian physicians and physicians-in-training.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2008Article
- Psychoeducation in schizophrenia--results of a survey of all psychiatric institutions in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2006Article
- Response rates and response bias for 50 surveys of pediatricians.Health services research · 2005Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLow response rates are acknowledged as a potential source of bias in survey results. Response rates are a particular problem in surveys of GPs. Thus, the methods used to encourage response to mailed surveys and the influence of inducements in maximizing response rates are fundamental issues to be examined when addressing the problem of response bias.
aimTo increase the overall response rate to a national study of GPs and to explore the effects of financial and non-financial inducements on response rates.
methodsTwo mailing waves of a postal questionnaire to a 20% random sample of all GPs in England and Wales had achieved a 33% response rate. For the third mailing wave, the non-responding GPs were then divided into a control group, a group who were offered a donation to charity to complete the questionnaire and a group who were offered cash. The charity and cash groups were further subdivided into 5 pounds and 10 pounds groups to assess the effect of the size of the inducement offered. For the control group, a fourth wave was sent the offer of a 5 pounds or 10 pounds incentive.
resultsResponse was positively affected by the offer of an inducement. Cash, however, had a more substantial effect than the offer of a donation to charity. Older GPs were less likely to participate overall, whereas male GPs were more likely to respond to a cash inducement. Doctors who had seen more patients were less likely to reply earlier and were more likely to respond to the offer of cash.
conclusionsPrimary care is going through many changes, some of which have increased the workload of the GP. It may now be that, to achieve the response rates needed to validate policy-related research, the offer of inducements will become a necessary part of the research process.
Indexed as
Identifiers
9101691PMC1312912What OpenQuestion holds
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.