The drop-off/pick-up method for household survey research (original) (raw)

A comparison of mail, telephone, and home interview strategies for household health surveys

American Journal of Public Health, 1979

The method of data collection in household health surveys can be a major determinant of cost and data quality. A survey strategy can comprise mail, telephone, or home interview methods, individually or in combination to follow up non-respondents. The purpose of this study in Montreal was to compare cost and data quality of various strategies. Strategies which began with mail or telephone contact, followed by the two other methods, provided response rates as high as a home interview strategy (all between 80 and 90 per cent), for one-half the cost of home interviews when Introuction Population surveys are important sources of data on health and health care utilization. ' Cost is an important limiting factor in survey research. In California, Hochstim showed that a mail survey backed by telephone and home interviews for follow-up of persistent non-respondents and a telephone survey analogously backed by mail and home interview can achieve similar response rates to a survey based on home interview approach and for one-half the cost.2 This important result needs further clarification as well as substantiation in different social contexts. It is not clear whether a mail or a telephone strategy is preferable and what the optimal follow-up procedure is to a given initial approach. Nor is there much information concerning validity of response and non-response bias by different data collection methods.3 The present study compared mail and telephone-based strategies (carried out in 1974) with each other and with a "'conventional" home interview strategy carried out two years earlier in the same area. The method used to elicit data is here defined as a "'medium''-the three media under consideration being home,

Household Survey Design: Regional Applicability and Adaptability

Data can be collected through household survey using different techniques. But the technique adopted in one region may or may not be applicable to another region. Similarly, the adaptability of survey instrument needs to be evaluated due to differing characteristics of the target population. This paper discusses the above two aspects. It is based on the study conducted with academic research interest in Mumbai, India. The context of the study was 'accesses to the sub urban rail transit system' and the aim was to increase the modal shares of walking and bicycle in transit accesses. The paper discusses the applicability of three data collection techniques and the adaptability of four format designs. The suggestions from this study are compared with the ones reported in literature. The analysis showed that the delivered and mailed back technique was not the most efficient data collection method. This was contrary to the finding reported from developed countries. Similarly, face-to-face interview technique was found better for the collection of attitudinal data against factual data. This was again contrary to the published literature. The results of format variants more or less agreed with the findings of the developed countries. Column format gave better results for recording of factual travel information. The opinions could be generated well in tabular format. The interaction of applicability and adaptability showed that delivered and mailed back technique provided extremely good results with detailed format; dropped and picked up technique provided good results with tabular format; and face-to-face personal interview technique worked satisfactorily with both the formats. The results of the above survey were used for the collection of final data.

Sampling within households in household surveys

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society), 2007

The number of people to select within selected households has significant consequences for the conduct and output of household surveys. The operational and data quality implications of this choice are carefully considered in many surveys, but the impact on statistical efficiency is not well understood. The usual approach is to select all people in each selected household, where operational and data quality concerns make this feasible. If not, one person is usually selected from each selected household. We find that this strategy is not always justified, and develop intermediate designs between these two extremes. Current practices were developed when household survey field procedures needed to be simple and robust, however more complex designs are now feasible due to the increasing use of computer-assisted interviewing. We develop more flexible designs by optimising survey cost, based on a simple cost model, subject to a required variance for an estimator of population total. The innovation lies in the fact that household sample sizes are small integers, which creates challenges in both design and estimation. The new methods are evaluated empirically using census and health survey data, showing considerable improvement over existing methods in some cases.

Managing a household survey: a practical example from the KENQOL survey

Health Policy and Planning, 2002

It is vital that surveys are well managed for results to be reliable and meaningful. Poorly managed surveys can result in falsified, lost or incomplete data. Good management requires time to plan and think about all those involved in the process of the survey: the respondents, interviewers, supervisors, coders and the wider community. This paper draws on our experience of running a randomized household survey in three locations in the rural area of Makueni district, Eastern Kenya. The paper outlines the various strategies used to: gain access to the local community; recruit and train interviewers; supervise; plan day to day activities; and manage data.

Strategies for achieving a high response rate in a home interview survey

BMC Medical Research Methodology, 2009

Response rates in surveys have been falling over the last 20 years, leading to the need for novel approaches to enhance recruitment. This study describes strategies used to maximise recruitment to a home interview survey of mothers with young children living in areas of high deprivation.

Challenges With Study Procedure Fidelity When Conducting Household Survey: Reports From The Field

Objectives The aim of the study was to identify reasons for protocol deviations during conduct of large epidemiological surveys despite conducting trainings, validating clinicians and providing field supervisory support. Enquiries focused on breeches with recruitment procedures, privacy, confidentiality and obtaining informed consent. The case study was a household survey conducted in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Results The study highlights that inspite of adequate training of field workers, providing supervisory support and conducting validation exercises, protocol deviation still occur. Measures to improve internal research validity during the conduct of surveys can minimise but not eliminate protocol deviations. Individual related factors increase the risk for protocol deviation when faced with environmental factors that promotes such breech. Individual factors that increases the risk for breeching research protocols include personal bias against adherence to elements of the protocols, and...

The household in household surveys

2010

Is the concept of household perceived as problematic by those people who do the data collection for household surveys? ... Is there evidence that in the negotiations between the interviewer and respondent, important dimensions of the household as a fundamental social unit are ...

Choosing a Household Survey Method: Results of Dallas—Fort Worth Pretest

Transportation Research Record, 1998

Presented are the findings of a pretest of a travel behavior survey conducted in the Dallas—Fort Worth region. The pretest directly compared five methodological options: ( a) a 24-h versus 48-h diary period; ( b) a shorter versus longer series of questions about each activity recorded; ( c) three types of incentives to encourage response; ( d) a booklet versus log format for the diaries; and ( e) telephone versus mailback retrieval of information. A diary recording period of 24 h was 1.6 times more likely to result in a completed household survey response than a 48-h recording period ( p-value <0.01). Telephone retrieval was twice as likely to result in a completed household than through mailbacks ( p-value <0.01). There was a significant difference ( p