title: Telephone answering machines: the influence of leaving messages on telephone interviewing response rates.
abstract: We studied women 45-54 years of age from two communities who failed to return a mailed survey in an experiment to assess the impact on interviewing response rates of leaving messages on telephone answering machines at the time of telephone follow-up. There were 88 and 103 subjects assigned to the "message" and "no message" groups, respectively. After adjustment for age, interviewer, and community, leaving messages increased the rate of reaching a household by about 15% and improved the overall interviewing response rate by about 15% as well. This improvement was more apparent in women from the higher socioeconomic status community.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115.
authors.forename: B L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Harlow
authors.forename: E C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Crea
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: East
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Oleson
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Fraer
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Cramer
mesh_terms: D001900:Boston; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008875:Middle Aged; D012923:Social Class; D013689:Telephone