Racial and ethnic variation in response to mailed and telephone surveys among women in a managed care population.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the characteristics of participants who completed a mailed survey, compared to those initial non-responders who completed the same survey over the telephone. STUDY DESIGN AND PATIENT POPULATIONS: We conducted a mailed survey, in both Spanish and English, among women with abnormal Pap smears, who were members of a large managed care organization. Telephone follow up for non-responders was performed by a bilingual interviewer. A 20-minute long distance telephone card was offered as an incentive to individuals who completed the telephone survey. We used bivariate and multivariate analyses to describe the population characteristics of respondents who replied by mail, as compared to those who completed the survey by telephone.


RESULTS
Of the 1049 potentially eligible participants, 733 women completed the survey, for an overall response rate of 70%. Fifty-six percent (N=411) of the surveys were received by mail, and 44% (N=322) were completed by telephone. Thirty-four percent of the telephone surveys were completed in Spanish, compared to 13% of the mailed surveys (P<.001). Telephone respondents were less satisfied with their health care than were those who responded by mail.


CONCLUSIONS
Among this insured cohort of women, Latinas who completed the survey in Spanish were more likely to participate in a telephone survey that offered an incentive, than in a mailed survey. These findings should be considered when planning health surveys in this population.
Nelson
Karin M
KM
Primary and Specialty Medical Care Service, VA Puget Sound Health Care System and the Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98108-1597, USA. karin.nelson@med.va.gov
Geiger
Ann M
AM
Mangione
Carol M
CM
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D002140:California; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D065006:Papanicolaou Test; D011177:Postal Service; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013689:Telephone; D014626:Vaginal Smears