Postal Surveys
Postal
surveys are commonly used in Health and Lifestyle surveys.
The procedure is simple - a sample of names and addresses is
drawn from a database, mailing labels or mail merge letters are produced and the
questionnaire is sent out with a covering letter. Reminder
postcards and letters (sometimes with another copy of the
questionnaire) are sent to encourage response.
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Issues to Consider
- Response rates -
achieving high response rates takes work. What happens
if your response rate is low - you can then
have a response bias.
- Design of the
questionnaire is key - Fairly lengthy postal questionnaires
can result in high response rates provided the design of the
questions and layout of the questionnaire is good.
- Limited complexity - The
content of postal questionnaires needs to be fairly straight
forward if they survey is of the general population.
Difficult or too personal content frequently reduces the
response rate.
- Who is the respondent? -
In a postal survey we are never 100% sure. We mail
the questionnaire to a named individual, but it can be
completed by others in the household.
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