Abstract
BackgroundThere is sufficient evidence that monetary incentives are effective in increasing survey response rates in the general population as well as with physicians. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of a monetary incentive intended for administrative assistants on the survey response rate of physicians in leadership positions.MethodsThis was an ancillary study to a national survey of chairs of academic Departments of Medicine in the United States about measuring faculty productivity. We randomized survey participants to receive or not receive a $5 gift card enclosed in the survey package. The cover letter explained that the gift card was intended for the administrative assistants as a “thank you for their time.” We compared the response rates between the 2 study arms using the Chi-square test.ResultsOut of 152 participants to whom survey packages were mailed to, a total of 78 responses were received (51 % response rate). The response rates were 59 % in the incentive arm and 46 % in the no incentive arm. The relative effect of the incentive compared to no monetary incentive was borderline statistically significant (relative risk (RR) = 1.36, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.99 to 1.87; p = 0.055).ConclusionMonetary incentives intended for administrative assistants likely increase the response rate of physicians in leadership positions.
Highlights
There is sufficient evidence that monetary incentives are effective in increasing survey response rates in the general population as well as with physicians
We included in the survey study a total of 152 chairpersons of Departments of Medicine and their respective administrative assistants
In a mailed survey to medical directors of large medical groups and independent practice associations, Malin et al found an increase from 17 to 13 % with first and second mailings of a survey with no monetary incentive, to 66 % in a third mailing with a $50 monetary incentive included [28]. This association has been observed in groups others than physicians as well; a recent systematic review of survey response rates found that using monetary incentives doubled postal survey response rates among varied populations including patients, other healthcare providers, and participants in non-health studies [36]
Summary
There is sufficient evidence that monetary incentives are effective in increasing survey response rates in the general population as well as with physicians. Surveying physicians using a mailed questionnaire has been associated with low response rates [1,2,3,4,5]. Multiple studies have focused on methods and strategies to increase response rate, for mailed survey questionnaires to physicians. These methods include incentive-based approaches such as small financial incentives and token. A recent systematic review including 48 studies and assessing strategies employed in surveys of health professionals found an estimated 12 percentage points increase in response rates with the introduction of monetary incentives [6]. Another systematic review of 66 published studies found that even a small financial incentive was effective in improving physician response rate [11].
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