title: The effect of two lottery-style incentives on response rates to postal questionnaires in a prospective cohort study in preschool children at high risk of asthma: a randomized trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In research with long-term follow-up and repeated measurements, quick and complete response to questionnaires helps ensure a study's validity, precision and efficiency. Evidence on the effect of non-monetary incentives on response rates in observational longitudinal research is scarce.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study the impact of two strategies to enhance completeness and efficiency in observational cohort studies with follow-up durations of around 2 years. METHOD AND INTERVENTION: In a factorial design, 771 children between 2 and 5 years old and their parents participating in a prospective cohort study were randomized to three intervention groups and a control group. Three types of lotteries were run: (i) daytrip tickets for the whole family to a popular amusement park if they returned all postal questionnaires, (ii) €12.50-worth gift vouchers for sending back the questionnaire on time after each questionnaire round and (iii) a combination of (i) and (ii).
  
  
  METHODS
  Primary outcome was the proportion of participants who returned all questionnaires without any reminder. Secondary outcomes were '100% returned with or without reminder', 'probability of 100% non-response', 'probability of withdrawal', 'proportion of returned questionnaires' and 'overall number of reminders sent'.
  
  
  METHODS
  After testing for interaction between the two lottery interventions, the two trials were analysed separately. We calculated risk differences (RD) and numbers needed to "treat" and their 95% confidence intervals.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Daytrip nor voucher intervention had an effect on the proportion of participants who returned all questionnaires (RD -0.01; 95% CI-0.07 - 0.06) and (RD 0.02; 95% CI-0.50 - 0.08), respectively. No effects were found on the secondary outcomes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings do not support the idea that lottery-style incentives lead to more complete response to postal questionnaires in observational cohort studies with repeated data collection and follow-up durations of around 2 years.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Practice, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. l.b.vandermark@amc.uva.nl
authors.forename: Lonneke B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: van der Mark
authors.forename: Karina E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: van Wonderen
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mohrs
authors.forename: Patrick Je
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Bindels
authors.forename: Milo A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Puhan
authors.forename: Gerben
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ter Riet
mesh_terms: D001249:Asthma; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010358:Patient Participation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D012107:Research Design; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires