Mail survey abroad with an alternative web survey

Abstract

The large decline in cooperation in surveys experienced in the first decade of the twenty first century has placed representative surveys in a veritable quagmire, although numerous researchers have shown that the decline in the total nonresponse has been much higher in administered surveys (face-to-face and telephone) than in self-administered (mail and web surveys). The move from the ''traditional'' mail survey to the internet survey has brought important changes, but, at the same time, new challenges have arisen related to the lower coverage and the reduced visibility, the need for certain skills to fill out a questionnaire, changes in response rates, etc. This is a self-administered survey that informs the addressees by mail that they have been selected to participate in a research survey to which they can respond either by using the paper questionnaire (in the letter there is a prepaid envelope), by means of a web questionnaire (accessing a link and using a password), or by telephone (the respondent provided a contact time telephone number via a prepaid envelope or by calling an answering machine). The respondents themselves, therefore, choose the mode of response. An analysis of the responses achieved by each modality shows that the majority of the questionnaires were received by ordinary mail (83.6 %), 359 by internet (14.4 %), and 51 were answered by telephone (2.0 %).

Do Physicians Prefer to Complete Online or Mail Surveys? Findings From a National Longitudinal Survey

“…In a recent survey of physicians in New South Wales, Australia, no one chose to respond online (Pit, Hansen, & Ewald, 2013). The proportion responding online in MABEL is also greater than those doing so in general, nonmedical, populations, for example, 14.4% respondents did so online in a survey of Andalusians living abroad (de Rada & Domínguez, 2015), 12.% of respondents did so online in a survey of colorectal cancer patients (Horevoorts et al, 2015), and 20% of respondents did so online in a general public survey (Smyth et al, 2010).…”

“…More generally, the finding that younger people are more likely than older people to prefer web surveys is fairly universal across physician and nonphysician populations (Horevoorts, Vissers, Mols, Thong, & van de Poll-Franse, 2015; Lusk, Delclos, Burau, Drawhorn, & Aday, 2007; Smyth, Olson, & Millar, 2014). This age-related preference is possibly related to young people’s greater familiarity with computers and the Internet (Wilkins, 2015), although a recent study found that 60% of those selecting postal rather than online response in a general population survey had Internet access at home and half used the Internet at least once a week (de Rada & Domínguez, 2015). Another found that web proficiency does not predict online survey preference (Millar & Dillman, 2011).…”