Increasing response rates to a smoking survey for US Navy enlisted women

This study examined the effectivencss of several persistent strategics to i ncrease the response to a smoking survey among newly enlisted U.S. Navy wom en. The stepped approach, which included the use of incentives, repeated ma ilings, alternative survey administration modes, and reminders, war evaluat ed in terms of effects on response rates and response bias. Demographic and baseline smoking-related characteristics were compared for those respondin g on time to the initial mailed follow-up survey, reluctant respondents who did not respond initially but eventually completed a survey after further prompting, and nonrespondents. Results showed that incentives and persisten t efforts were effective in substantially increasing the response among 2,2 31 eligible participants, more than doubling the response rate (from 24.9% to 52.7%). The characteristics of ontime, reluctant, and nonrespondents did not differ significantly in terms of sociodemographic characteristics. On the other hand on-time respondents were different from both reluctant respo ndents and nonrespondents in terms of smoking-related behaviors. (C) Sage P ublications, Inc.