title: Surveys of Health Professions Trainees: Prevalence, Response Rates, and Predictive Factors to Guide Researchers.
abstract: To establish a baseline overall response rate for surveys of health professions trainees, determine strategies associated with improved response rates, and evaluate for the presence of nonresponse bias.
  
  
  
  The authors performed a comprehensive analysis of all articles published in Academic Medicine, Medical Education, and Advances in Health Sciences Education in 2013, recording response rates. Additionally, they reviewed nonresponse bias analyses and factors suggested in other fields to affect response rate including survey delivery method, prenotification, and incentives.
  
  
  
  The search yielded 732 total articles; of these, 356 were research articles, and of these, 185 (52.0%) used at least one survey. Of these, 66 articles (35.6%) met inclusion criteria and yielded 73 unique surveys. Of the 73 surveys used, investigators reported a response rate for 63.0% of them; response rates ranged from 26.6% to 100%, mean (standard deviation) 71.3% (19.5%). Investigators reported using incentives for only 16.4% of the 73 surveys. The only survey methodology factor significantly associated with response rate was single- vs. multi-institutional surveys (respectively, 74.6% [21.2%] vs. 62.0% [12.8%], P = .022). Notably, statistical power for all analyses was limited. No articles evaluated for nonresponse bias.
  
  
  
  Approximately half of the articles evaluated used a survey as part of their methods. Limited data are available to establish a baseline response rate among health professions trainees and inform researchers which strategies are associated with higher response rates. Journals publishing survey-based health professions education research should improve reporting of response rate, nonresponse bias, and other survey factors.
authors.affiliation: A.W. Phillips is a fellow, Division of Critical Care, Stanford University, Stanford, California. B.T. Friedman is a second-year resident, Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. A. Utrankar is a third-year medical student, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee. A.Q. Ta is a first-year medical student, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois. S.T. Reddy is professor of medicine, University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, and associate program director, Internal Medicine Residency Program, Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois. S.J. Durning is professor of medicine and pathology and director, Graduate Programs in Health Professions Education, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland.
authors.forename: Andrew W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: Benjamin T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: Amol
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Utrankar
authors.forename: Andrew Q
authors.initials: AQ
authors.lastname: Ta
authors.forename: Shalini T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Reddy
authors.forename: Steven J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Durning
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003625:Data Collection / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires