DESIGNING SURVEYS
September 18, 2012 1:00 – 2:15 pm
WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES

By the end of this session you will:
 Know the major strengths and weaknesses of
alternative methods for measuring key public
health variables using survey questionnaires
 Be able to write clear, specific survey questions
 Be able to independently design a questionnaire for
a small-scale survey
2
PREPARING FOR A SURVEY

Defining the survey purpose

Identifying survey recipients

Defining key concepts

Designing the survey instrument

Putting it all together (structure)
3
WHY USE A SURVEY?
Target large amount of people
 Use to describe, compare or explain
 Can cover activities and behavior, knowledge,
attitudes, preferences
 Specific objectives, standardized and highly structured
questions
 Used to collect quantitative data – information that
can be counted or measured

4
STRENGTHS






Reach respondents in widely dispersed locations
Can be relatively low cost in time and money
Relatively easy to get information from people quickly
Standardized questions
Analysis can be straight-forward and responses pre-coded
Low pressure for respondents
LIMITATIONS



Low response rate and consequent bias and confidence in
results
Seeks information only by asking, can we trust what
people say? e.g. issues with over-reporting
Question wording can have major effect on answers
5
BIASES THAT MUST BE UNDERSTOOD
The selection of questions reflect the biases and
perspectives of the researchers
 The questions being posed often include inherent
biases
 Answers to survey questions reflect the perspective of
the respondent
 Multiple respondents may answer differently
 The selected sample may not necessarily reflect the
general population
 Difficulty in getting “accurate” responses from
different populations

6
DEFINING THE SURVEY
PURPOSE
7
DEVELOP THE PURPOSE
Write a couple of sentences about the
purpose of the survey- what is the
general thing you want to find out?
 Write down ideas about the kinds of
questions you could ask
 Brainstorm the data you could collect
related to the purpose you have
chosen
 Write down the users for the
questionnaire
 Group your ideas into three or four
key areas to investigate and write
down what these are
 Why will this be important to the
person who wants the questionnaire
written?

Think about
the overall
purpose for
your
questionnaire
and what
data you
want to get
out of it
8
THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:



Kind of information: What do you want to know? Is
the information already available?
What do you NEED to know vs. “would like to
know”
Who will complete the questionnaire - when? (think
about readability, length, interest in the topic, etc)
9
IDENTIFYING SURVEY
RECIPIENTS
10
WHO DO YOU WANT TO FIND OUT
INFORMATION ABOUT?
This is the target population.
WHO WILL YOU GIVE THE
QUESTIONNAIRE TO?
This is called the sample.
COMBINE WITH PREVIOUS
SAMPLING
Population
Good Sample
Poor Sample
12
WHAT IS A RESPONSE RATE?
The proportion of people who respond:
# that answered = response rate
# you contacted
Example: If you distribute 50 questionnaires and you
get 25 questionnaires back, your response rate is 50%.
 High response rate promotes confidence in
results.
 Lower response rate increases the likelihood of
biased results.
13
WHICH TYPE OF SURVEY SHOULD I
CHOOSE?
14
5 ALTERNATIVE INTERVIEW METHODS
Interview type Advantages
Disadvantages
Personal interview •Stronger commitment to completing
•More costly
•Greater potential for creating a
non-representative sample
the interview.
•Greater confidence in finding the
right recipient
•Longer interviews tolerated
Telephone surveys
•Quicker turn-around
•Wide availability of telephone
numbers
•Availability of CATI to address
complex questions
•Role skilled interviewers to elicit
more complete answers
• Negative perception of surveyors
as “telemarketers”
•Challenges of getting past
“gatekeepers” (e.g., administrative
assistants, caller ID)
Mail surveys
•Relative expense per response
•Ability to use only names and
address to reach respondent
•Can use photos
•Answer at respondent’s leisure
•Viewed as less intrusive
•Survey takes longer
•Response rates lower
•Respondents are more likely to
have “something to say”
•Less ability to correct
“misunderstanding” of questions
15
5 ALTERNATIVE INTERVIEW METHODS
(CONTINUED)
Interview type
Advantages
Disadvantages
Email surveys
•Inexpensive with quick turnaround
•Simple
•Allows attachments
•Cannot handle complex logic
•Requires having email addresses
•Perceptions about viruses and spam
•Potential missed messages due to
“junk” mail filters
•Difficult to manage sample due to
ease of forwarding
•Loss of anonymity
•Response bias/inability to generalize
Web surveys
•High speed in getting responses
•Low cost
•Use of email to generate responses
•Flexibility in creating complex logic
•More responsive to ‘sensitive’
questions
•Greater ability to use open-ended
questions
•Respondent inputs data
•Increase survey “quitting”
•Restricting response to the “sample”
•Even greater difficulty in
generalizing results
16
WHICH TYPE OF SURVEY SHOULD I
CHOOSE?
“It depends”… upon
 What you want to know
– how complex or
sensitive the
information is
 Who the respondents
are – their
characteristics and
which type of survey
will be most
appropriate
 Your timeline
 Available resources
17
WILL USING A SURVEY BE
CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE?
Literacy level
 Tradition of reading, writing
 Setting
 Not best choice for people with oral tradition
 Translation (demands more than just literal
translation)
 How cultural traits affect response
 How to sequence the questions
 Pretesting the questionnaire when it may be
viewed as intrusive
 Computer access and use if an electronic survey

18
IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
RESPONDENTS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE:
Their educational backgrounds determine the
most effective wording
 Their ages and writing abilities will affect the
type of question you use
 Their potential interest in the topic affects what
you need to do to ensure they respond
 Physical and ability levels may affect how the
questionnaire is administered

19
DEFINING KEY CONCEPTS
20
DEFINE THE VARIABLES TO BE
COLLECTED

Write a detailed list of
the information to be
collected and the
concepts to be measured
in the study. Are you
trying to identify:





Attitudes
Needs
Behavior
Demographics
Some combination of
these concepts
Translate these concepts
into variables that can
be measured.
 Define the role of each
variable in the statistical
analysis:
 Predictor
 Confounder
 Outcome

21
DESIGNING A SURVEY
INSTRUMENT
22
Creating and aggregating information about a
large number of respondents
STUDY PROTOCOL AND QUESTIONNAIRE
Study protocol
Questionnaire
Definition of
objectives
Design questions
questions must relate to
objectives
List of variables to
collect
Analysis plan
Control and
reading
collect appropriate
information for analyses
Pilot test
23
QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN
Design individual questions:
Good questionnaires
are difficult to
construct; bad
questionnaires are
difficult to analyze.
Adopt questions used in other questionnaires
 Adapt questions used in other questionnaires (search
the literature)
 Develop your own questions (may want to use focus
groups or key informant interviews)

24
REVIEW THE LITERATURE
Review current literature to identify related
surveys and data collection instruments that
have measured concepts similar to those related
to your study’s aims.
 Saves development time and allows for
comparison with other studies if used
appropriately.
 Proceed with caution if using only a subset of an
existing questionnaire as this may change the
meaning of the scores. Contact the authors of the
questionnaire to determine if a smaller version of
the instrument exists that has also been
validated.

25
QUESTIONNAIRE NEEDS TO BE ADAPTED
TO STUDY POPULATION
Know the respondents



language
education
occupation


ethnic group
sensitive issues
26
5 MINUTE BREAK
QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Type of information
Type of questions
Types of response
Common wording problems
Problems with response
Validity
Reliability
28
TYPE OF INFORMATION

Knowledge - what people know
What is the recommended interval between eye
checks for patients with uncomplicated diabetes?
o 6 months
o 1 year
o 2 years
o Not sure
29
TYPE OF INFORMATION
Knowledge - what people know
 Opinions, attitudes, beliefs, values - what people
think about an issue

What do you think are the major issues affecting
general practice physicians at the moment?
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
30
TYPE OF INFORMATION
Knowledge - what people know
 Opinions, attitudes, beliefs, values - what people
think about an issue
 Behavior - what people do

Have you developed a care plan for any of your
patients?
o
o
Yes
No
31
TYPE OF INFORMATION
Knowledge - what people know
 Opinions, attitudes, beliefs, values - what people
think about an issue
 Behavior - what people do
 Attributes – who people are (characteristics)

When did you graduate from college? _______
32
QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Type of information
Type of questions
Types of response
Common wording problems
Problems with response
Validity
Reliability
33
OPEN AND CLOSED QUESTIONS
(FROM OPPENHEIM, 1992)
OPEN
CLOSED
Strength
Limitation
Freedom & spontaneity of
answer
Time-consuming
Opportunity to probe
Coding more problematic
Useful for testing
hypothesis about ideas or
awareness
More effort from respondents
Requires little time
Loss of spontaneous responses
No extended writing
Bias in answer categories
Low costs
Sometimes too crude
Easy to process
May irritate respondents
Make group comparisons
easy
Useful for testing specific
hypothesis
34
CLOSED-ENDED QUESTIONS
Typically used in quantitative studies.
 Assumption is researcher has knowledge to prespecify response categories.
 Data can be pre-coded and therefore in a form
amenable for use with statistical packages (e.g.,
SPSS, SAS) – data capture therefore easier.
 More difficult to design but simplifies analysis.
 Used in studies involving large samples.
 Limited range of response options.

35
BRANCHING QUESTIONS
Are used to direct respondents to answer the
right questions as well as questions in the proper
sequence
 ‘Skips’ in telephone questionnaires more easily
managed if these are computer-assisted
 Consider including ‘not applicable’ category:
In the past week, how often have you used
MEDLINE:

Not at all
o At least once
o More than once
o I do not have access to MEDLINE
o
36
SCREENING OR FILTER QUESTIONS

Are used to ensure respondents in the study are
those that meet the pre-determined criteria of the
target population.
“Tonight we are talking with individuals who are
18 years of age or older and have 50 percent or
more of the responsibility for healthcare decisions
in your household. Are you that person?”
__ Yes __ No
37
QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Type of information
Type of questions
Types of response
Common wording problems
Problems with response
Validity
Reliability
38
RESPONSE – WORDING THE ANSWER
Wording the
response is as
important as clear
wording in the
question.
 Make the answer
options clear, logical,
comparable and
mutually exclusive.

39
RESPONSES
Closed ended questions are usually followed by a
set of responses
 Limited choices of responses, lack of consistency
in what a yes/no, agree/disagree response means
Do you have trouble climbing stairs?
 Attitudes and behaviors lie on a continuum
To what extent do you experience difficulty when
climbing stairs in your house?
o None
o A little
o Quite a bit
o A lot
o I do not have stairs in my house

40
RESPONSES

Choose type of scale:
 Nominal
Are you:
o Male
o Female
What is your marital status?
o Single
o Married
o Widowed
o Divorced
o Separated
o Other, specify __________
41
RESPONSES

Choose type of scale:
 Nominal
 Ordinal
What is your current
stage of cancer?
o Localized
o Regional
o Metastatic
What is the highest level of
education you have reached?
o Did not complete high
school
o High school
diploma/GED
o Some college
o Bachelor’s degree
o Post-graduate
education
42
RESPONSES

Choose type of scale:
 Nominal
 Ordinal
 Continuous
o Numerical
How severe was your pain after you were stung?
(please circle)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Not painful at all
Very painful
Analogue
How severe is your pain (put the tick on the line)
o
0
10
43
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU
PARTICIPATED IN THE HEALTH FAIR?
Poor spacing and
logic
0−1
1−3
3−6
7−12
More than 12 times
Better
0 times (never)
1−3 times
4−6 times
7- 9 times
10 or more times
Vertical order of answer choice options
44
EXHAUSTIVE AND MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE
RESPONSE OPTIONS
From which one of these
sources did you first learn
about the health clinic?
o A friend
o A neighbor
o A relative
o An advertisement
o At school
What is your age ?
o 16-20
o 20-25
o 25-30
o 35-40
o Over 40?
• Mutually exclusive: In the above example, I might
have first learned about the health clinic through a
friend who is also a neighbor – which would I check?
Also, the choices include both sources and locations.
• Exhaustive: make sure the options include all
possible, important answers. Use ‘other’ fields.
45
INCLUDE BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SIDES
IN THE QUESTION STEM AND ALL POSSIBLE
ANSWER OPTIONS
Poor: Do you agree that our planning committee needs
to meet once per month?
o Agree
o Disagree
Better: Do you agree or disagree that our planning
committee needs to meet once per month?
o Agree
o Disagree
o No opinion
Another option: How often do you think our planning
committee should meet?
o More than once a month
o Once a month
o Less than once a month
46
RATING SCALES
47
FIVE TYPES OF ORDINAL RATING SCALES
Endorsement
 Definitely true, true, don’t know, false, definitely
false
 Frequency
 Always, very often, fairly often, sometimes, almost
never, never
 Intensity
 None, very mild, mild, moderate, severe
 Influence
 Big problem, moderate problem, small problem,
very small problem, no problem
 Comparison
 Much more than others, somewhat more than
others, about the same as others, somewhat less
than others, much less than others
48

PROVIDE BALANCED SCALES WITH CATEGORIES
THAT ARE EVENLY SPACED CONCEPTUALLY
Poor
Overall, how would
you rate your
experience as a nurse?
o Excellent
o Very good
o Good
o Fair
o Poor
Better
Overall, how would
you rate your
experience as a nurse?
o Very good
o Good
o Fair
o Poor
o Very poor
Balance the scale with an equal number of
positive and negative options.
49
MAKE SURE THE RESPONSE SCALE
MATCHES THE QUESTION
Poor
To what extent do you
think the health
leadership project
helped you develop
your leadership skills?
o Excellent
o Very good
o Good
o Fair
o Poor
Better
To what extent do you
think the health
leadership project
helped you develop
your leadership skills?
o Very great extent
o
o
o
o
Great extent
Some extent
Little extent
Very little extent
50
KEEP THE SCALE CONSISTENT
Poor
o
o
o
o
Not worth my time
Very little interest
Somewhat interested
Very interested
Better
o
o
o
o
Not at all interested
Very little interest
Somewhat interested
Very interested
The left column includes two concepts –
“worth” and “interest level.”
51
ALWAYS INCLUDE LABELS FOR YOUR
NUMBERED SCALE CATEGORIES TO AVOID
MISINTERPRETATION
Incomplete labels:
To what extent have you increased your triage
skills as a result of this program?
A great deal
Not at all
1
2
3
4
Fully labeled:
To what extent have you increased your triage
skills as a result of this program?
A great deal Somewhat Not much Not at all
1
2
3
4
52
LIKERT SCALE

Rate agreement with a series of statements.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with
each of the following statements…
o
o
o
o
o
Strongly Agree
Agree
Neither
Disagree
Strongly disagree
53
CHECKLIST
Which of the following issues are barriers to Tibetans’ overall
tuberculosis (TB) care?
Language
Yes  No  Don´t know
Immigration
 Yes  No  Don´t know
Misconceptions about TB  Yes  No  Don´t know
Lack of insurance
 Yes  No  Don´t know
Patient’s work schedule  Yes  No  Don´t know
Which of the following issues are barriers to Tibetans’
overall tuberculosis (TB) care?

Language

Immigration

Misconceptions about TB

Lack of insurance

Patient’s work schedule
54
QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Type of information
Type of questions
Types of response
Common wording problems
Problems with response
Validity
Reliability
55
QUESTION WORDING
1.
Clarity/specificity
“Have you seen a doctor during the past year?”
“In the last 12 months, have you visited a general
practitioner?” Yes  No
“How long has it been since you last visited a
general practitioner?
o within the last month,
o between 1 and 12 months ago
o more than 12 months ago
56
QUESTION WORDING
2.
Simplicity
 Avoid complex or technical phrasing.
 Use complete but short sentences (avoiding double
negatives and redundancy between question stem
and response options)
 Avoid “deceptively short” questions with high
respondent burden (complex tables, rank ordering,
mental calculations, “check all that apply”)
57
QUESTION WORDING
3.
Neutrality
 Avoid loaded questions, arguable prefatory
statements, and judgmental words/phrases
“Do you prefer being examined by a doctor of your
own sex?”
Would you rather be examined by a:
o Male doctor
o Female doctor
o Either/doesn’t matter
58
QUESTION WORDING
4.
Sensitivity
 Encourage ‘unorthodox’ and “socially undesirable"
responses (depersonalization):
“Everybody does it…”
“How many times…”
“Many experts say…”
 Discourage over reporting of ‘socially desirable’
responses
“Did you happen to…”
“Many people have trouble remembering…”
 Allow for either agreement or disagreement in

question stem
Funneling questions to introduce sensitive topics
59
QUESTION WORDING
5.
One topic per question
 Avoid ‘double-barreled’ questions
“Do African-Americans and Latinos suffer
from discrimination”
6.
Specify an appropriate time frame
 Typical/usual versus maximal/minimal
 Depends on salience of topic
7.
Improving recall
 Aided recall (memory cues, prompts)
 Bounded recall (time window)
 Records or diaries
60
QUESTION WORDING
8.
Consider question polarity and sequence
(survey as conversation)
 Avoid ‘yea-saying’ patterns and carryover
effects, but maintain consistency when
possible
9.
Check for technical accuracy
61
QUESTION ORDER


Decide on the order of items/questions
 easy
 difficult
 general
 particular
 factual
 abstract
 most salient  least salient
Questions should be ordered so as to seem logical to
the respondent

Group questions

Be aware of ordering effects/position bias

Don’t put the most important items last
62
QUESTION ORDER
To avoid wasting time, qualify early
 To boost response rate, put innocuous questions
first, personal questions last
 Start with questions that are easy to answer and
relevant to the stated purpose of the survey
 To boost response rate, put demographic
questions last
 To increase accuracy, keep similar questions
together

63
QUESTION WORDING – THINGS TO AVOID
Abbreviations
 Alternative meanings
 Negatives, words with negative prefixes
 Inappropriate categories
 Asking same question twice
 Jargon
 Leading questions
 Typographical errors
 Threatening questions
 Being condescending

64
THE GOAL OF WRITING A GOOD QUESTION…
is to develop a question that every potential
respondent will:
1.
interpret in the same way,
2.
be able to respond to accurately, and
3.
be willing to answer.
65
QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Type of information
Type of questions
Common wording problems
Types of response
Problems with response
Validity
Reliability
66
PROBLEMS WITH RESPONSE
Fatigue/boredom/disinterest
 agree with everything
 just say ‘don’t know’
 always choose first response
 ‘randomly’ respond without considering the
question (Christmas treeing)
 Social desirability
 instruct that it is ok not to know something
 Aversion to extreme ends of the scale
 Ceiling effects
 Halo effects
 Framing effects

67
PROBLEMS WITH RESPONSE
Minimizing fatigue/boredom
 Keep task simple
 e.g. easier to recall more recent events
 Keep words short and easy to understand
 Maintain motivation of participants
 Ensure task is relevant
 Ask people to justify their responses
 Position Bias
 May be more likely to endorse first or last
response option
 Preceding questions may influence responses
to questions that follow

68
AVOID POSITION BIAS
Position Bias
“How important are
flexible hours in
evaluating job
alternatives?”
“What factors are
important in
evaluating job
alternatives?”
No Position Bias
“What factors are
important in
evaluating job
alternatives?”
“How important are
flexible hours in
evaluating job
alternatives?”
69
QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Type of information
Type of questions
Types of response
Common wording problems
Problems with response
Validity
Reliability
70
VALIDITY
Does the question measure what you claim it
measures?
 Problems with self-report
 People don’t know the causes of their own
behavior
 People’s memories are inaccurate
 People are not good at predicting their future
behavior
 People are not telling you what they know
because of
 Social desirability bias
 Demand characteristics
 Response sets

71
QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Type of information
Type of questions
Common wording problems
Types of response
Problems with response
Validity
Reliability
72
RELIABILITY
Results are reproducible or consistent with
similar groups of respondents, over time and
when other people administer the questionnaire
 Questions measure consistently
 Test-retest
 Inter-rater
 Internal consistency

73
FOR EACH QUESTION GIVEN,
IDENTIFY WHICH TYPE OF QUESTION
IT IS, IDENTIFY ANY ISSUES WITH
THE QUESTION, AND EXPLAIN HOW
YOU MIGHT IMPROVE THE QUESTION
AND WHY.
Identify issues with questions and discuss
improvements
Question One
Is there normally an adult
at home during the day?’
Identify
which type of
question it is
Identify any
issues with
the question
Explain how
you might
improve the
question and
why.
75
Question Two
How much money would
you be prepared to spend
on a burglar alarm?’
$500
$1000
$1500
LO: Identify
issues with
questions
and discuss
Identify
improvement
which type of
s
question it is
Identify any
issues with
the question
Explain how
you might
improve the
question and
why.
76
Question Three
How much television did
you watch last year?
LO: Identify
issues with
questions
and discuss
Identify
improvement
which type of
s
question it is
Identify any
issues with
the question
Explain how
you might
improve the
question and
why.
77
Question Four
Do you agree that trains
and buses and taxis are
kept clean enough?
Identify
which type of
question it is
Identify any
issues with
the question
Explain how
you might
improve the
question and
why.
78
Question Five
Do you think nurses are:
very kind
fairly kind
not very kind?
Identify
which type of
question it is
Identify any
issues with
the question
Explain how
you might
improve the
question and
why.
79
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Structure of a questionnaire
STRUCTURE OF A QUESTIONNAIRE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Identification
Introduction
Instructions on how to answer
Questions
Conclusion
81
ANONYMITY AND CONFIDENTIALITY


Anonymous means that NO ONE can identify who
provided the information
 Difficult to assure if there is a need to follow-up with
non-respondents or when the survey is administered
online (internet or intranet)- Don’t promise anonymity!
Confidentiality means that you are able to identify the
person, but you guarantee that the information will not be
identified with the person
 All aspects of data collection, analysis and reporting
 When reporting and communicating, ensure that no
names or other identifying information is used
82
ALWAYS PILOT TEST THE QUESTIONNAIRE
By experts- your colleagues, others who are
knowledgeable about writing questions or your
program
 By potential respondents- or people as similar to
respondents as possible
 Do they understand the questions? The
instructions?
 Do questions mean the same thing to all?
 Do questions elicit the information you want?
 How long does it take?

83
SUMMARY
A well designed survey instrument:
 collects appropriate data to answer your research
question
 minimizes potential sources of bias
 increases the validity of the replies
 will much more likely be completed
84
CONTACT INFORMATION
Kelleigh Trepanier
KSU Center (West Entrance)
Burruss.kennesaw.edu
ktrepani@kennesaw.edu
770-423-6464
85
THANK YOU
RESOURCES
www.aapor.org
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practice applicable to surveys of health service staff
and patients”, Health Technology Assessment, 2001.
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and Unwin, London.
Dillman, D., Smyth, J., Christian, LM. 2009. Internet,
Mail and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The tailored design
method. John Wiley and Sons.
Fink, A. (Ed.)(1995) The Survey Kit. Sage, London.
Foddy W (1993). Constructing questions for interviews
and questionnaires: Theory and practice in social
research. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
Fowler, Floyd J. (2002) Survey Research Methods. Sage,
87
London.
RESOURCES
Hoinville, G and Jowell, R. (1982) Survey Research
Practice. Heinemann, London.
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Social Investigation. Ashgate, Aldershot.
Oppenheim AN (1992). Questionnaire design,
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Association. Free download at
http://www.whatisasurvey.info/
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attitude surveys: experiments on question form,
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Streiner DL, Norman GF (1995). Health Measurement
Scales: a practical guide to their development and use,
88
Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995.
LARGE SCALE SURVEYS
Converse, Philip E., Jean D. Dotson, Wendy J. Hoag,
and William H. McGee III (eds.), American Social
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 Gallup, Alec, George Gallup, The Gallup Poll
Cumulative Index: Public Opinion1935-1997
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
89
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Presser, Sourcebook of Harris National Surveys:
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 Miller, Warren E., Arthur H. Miller, and Edward J.
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 Robinson, John P., Robert Athanasiou, and Kendra B.
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
90
Robinson, John P., Phillip R. Shaver, and Lawrence S.
Wrightsman, Measures of Political Attitudes (San
Diego, CA: Academic Press, 1999).
 Robinson, John P., and Phillip R. Shaver, Measures of
Social-Psychological Attitudes (Ann Arbor, MI:
Institute for Social Research, 1980, rev. ed.).

Converse, Jean M., and Stanley Presser, Survey
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Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social
Research (ICPSR) www.icpsr.umich.edu
91
TOP TEN STRATEGIES TO MAXIMIZE
RESPONSE RATES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
More interesting better than less interesting
Certified or priority delivery better than regular mail
Incentive (especially money) better than no incentive
Short better than long
Incentive with questionnaire better than on return
Pre-contact better than no pre-contact
Colored ink better than standard ink
User friendly better than standard questionnaire
Follow-up better than no follow up
Request explanation for not completing better than no
request
Edwards, Roberts, Clarke et al BMJ 2002; 324: 1183
92