No abstract

Oral sexual activity is an established component of many rural adolescents' sexual experiences. These findings have important implications for sex education programs targeted to rural adolescent youths.

Anal sexual activity is a component of some rural adolescents' sexual experiences. These findings have important implications for sex education programs targeted to rural schools, where the typical high school classroom may have some students engaging in anal sex.

This study assessed differences in response rates to a mailed health survey by adults in two neighboring rural midwestern counties with differential incentives, of dollar 2.00 and dollar 5.00. Potential respondents in each county were randomly selected from a commercial database of residents' addresses. County "F" respondents (n = 541) which were 57% female and 95% Euro-American having a mean age of 47.3 yr. (SD= 16.9), received the dollar 5 incentive. County "H" respondents (n= 514) were 63% female, 95% Euro-American, had a mean age of 49.0 yr. (SD= 14.7), and received a S2 incentive. The response rates were 71% using the dollar 2 incentive and 73% using the dollar 5 incentive. These were not significantly different by chi-square test. The more cost-effective incentive for increasing the response rate of adults in this rural midwestern sample was to code the envelopes and use a dollar 2.00 rather than dollar 5.00 incentive, a cost per returned survey of dollar 5.24 versus dollar 9.13, respectively. The findings support Dillman's principle of diminishing returns as the size of the incentive goes up.