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Chocolate frogs do not increase completion of parent survey: Randomised study
Author(s) -
Price Anna MH,
Coates Cathy,
Symeonides Christos,
Hiscock Harriet,
Smith Libby,
York Elissa,
Hennel Sabine
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1111/jpc.12606
Subject(s) - medicine , telephone survey , incentive , demography , pediatrics , family medicine , advertising , sociology , economics , business , microeconomics
Four months into a year‐long, national survey assessing parents' experiences of a child's diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, our response fraction was only 23%. We aimed to determine whether including a chocolate incentive in the postal survey would increase the response fraction. Families enrolled between 15 M arch and 25 M ay 2012 were randomised to receive a chocolate frog versus no chocolate frog. Both groups received a written reminder and replacement survey 2 weeks after the survey was posted and up to two telephone reminders thereafter. We analysed the effect of the incentive using χ 2 tests for the categorical response variable and t ‐tests for the continuous reminder and length of response variables at the end of (i) randomisation and (ii) the study (1  N ovember 2012). A total of 137 families were randomised in the 6‐week period. Parents who received an incentive were more likely to return a completed survey in the 6 weeks than those who did not (21% vs. 6%, P  = 0.009). This effect faded by the end of the study (53% vs. 42%, P  = 0.4). There were no differences between groups at either follow‐up in the number of reminders that parents received or the number of days it took parents to return the survey. Including a chocolate‐based incentive does not significantly increase response rate in a postal survey over and above standard reminder techniques like posting follow‐up survey packs or phoning families.

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