MIXED-MODE SURVEY OF FEMALE VETERINARIANS YIELDS HIGH RESPONSE RATE

In a recent study oi female veterinarians, a subgroup oi health profes sionals growing rapidly in number, the authors employed a mixed-mode s urvey design in targeting the cohort oi women graduating from ail US v eterinary colleges during the Ii-year period 1970-80 (n = 2,997). The questionnaire elicited information on a variety oi health and occupati onal factors and required 35 minutes on average to complete. In the fi rst stage, a modified version of Dillman's Total Design Method for mai led, sell-administered questionnaires was employed, yielding a respons e rate of 82.9%. In the second stage, a telephone interview of all mai l non-respondents was attempted, yielding a response rate here of only 30.1%, but increasing the overall response rate among those contacted to 90.2%. Non-respondents differed little from mail (early) or teleph one (late) respondents with respect to year of graduation and geograph ic region oi veterinary college attendance. Gentle probing oi telephon e non-respondents suggested the personal nature of some questions and the amount of time required to answer all questions were the main reas ons they chose not to participate, it therefore appears that conventio nal survey techniques may be successfully employed in health studies o f health professionals, particularly ii issues of great concern to the target population are addressed.