Open AccessEffects of Mailing Strategies on Response Rate, Response Time, and Cost in a Questionnaire Study Among Nurses
Author(s) -
Bernard C. K. Choi,
Anita W P Pak,
James T. Purdham
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.901
H-Index - 173
eISSN - 1531-5487
pISSN - 1044-3983
DOI - 10.1097/00001648-199001000-00015
Subject(s) - medicine , food stamps , response time , timestamp , operations management , advertising , business , computer science , engineering , economics , computer security , computer graphics (images) , welfare , market economy
We conducted a pilot study to determine the most efficient mailing strategy for a postal questionnaire study among nurses in Ontario, Canada. Five mailing strategies involving types of stamps on the return envelopes were considered: no stamp, business-reply stamp, metered stamp, small regular stamp, and large commemorative stamp. We found that paper stamps, especially large commemorative stamps, on return envelopes increased the response rate and reduced the response time, as compared with other mailing strategies. Business-reply stamps had the lowest cost per response received and a low total cost.