Original article
Response rates for surveys of chiropractors

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmpt.2003.11.005Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

Survey response rates may vary by type of practitioner studied and may have declined over time. Response rates for surveys of complementary practitioners have not been studied.

Objective

To describe the response rates in published surveys of chiropractors and explore for secular trends in response rates and for methodologic and geographic correlates of response rates.

Methods

Secondary analysis of data extracted from published English language reports of surveys of chiropractors. Response rates were calculated as the total number of persons from whom a questionnaire was returned divided by the total number of persons who were sent a questionnaire.

Results

Sixty-two surveys represented by 79 articles published in the interval 1980 to 2000 met inclusion criteria for analysis. We were able to calculate a response rate for 46 postal surveys. The mean response rate was 52.7%. There was no significant association between geographic setting and response rate, and there was no evidence of secular trend in response rates. None of the studies employed incentives. The strongest predictor of response rate was number of contacts with the target population.

Conclusion

Response rates for surveys of chiropractors are similar to those observed for surveys of medical doctors. The key to obtaining high response rates is the use of evidence-based methods in design and conduct of the surveys.

Introduction

Survey research is often conducted to obtain estimates of the prevalence of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of health service providers., and may have implications in terms of training, practice, education, and allocation of health care resources. Low response rates raise concerns that members of the target population that return completed questionnaires differ systematically from those who do not return completed questionnaires. Response rates to mail surveys have been found to vary depending on the nature of the population studied,1 and there is some evidence that response rates to surveys have declined over time.2 Response rates to surveys of complementary practitioners such as chiropractors have not been specifically examined.

We examined the response rates in published studies that surveyed chiropractors by mail or telephone and explored for correlates of the response rates. Specific aims were to examine:

  • 1.

    The impact of survey methods (advance notice, number of mailings or telephone contacts, having code numbers on questionnaires, incentives) on response rates.

  • 2.

    If there was geographic variation in response rates.

  • 3.

    If there were secular trends (changes over time) in response rates.

Section snippets

Methods

A comprehensive search to identify published reports of surveys of chiropractors was done. The search strategies were developed and tested with the assistance of an experienced research librarian. Seven electronic databases were searched: MEDLINE (1966-December 31, 2000), PREMEDLINE (March 2, 2001), CANCERLIT (1975-November 2000), CINAHL (1982-February 2001), AMED (1985-February 2001), EMBASE (1988-March 14, 2001), and MANTIS (1880-February 2001). Papers in which “chiropract” (wild card) was

Results

The 150 articles that were screened in depth represented 129 surveys. Of the 150 articles, 97 (64.7%) were found by the database searches and 53 were found by searching personal files and examining cited references (hand search). A total of 62 surveys represented by 79 papers were included in the analysis (Appendix A online at www.mosby.com/jmpt). Twenty-four of the included articles (30.3%) were found by the hand-searching strategies. Table 2 displays the frequency of the reasons for which

Discussion

We used a comprehensive strategy to locate literature relevant to this study, including a wide selection of search terms, the use of multiple databases, and hand searching personal files and following the lists of articles cited in retrieved literature. The use of combined strategies, particularly of hand searching as a component of a comprehensive search, is highlighted by the observation that about one third of the articles identified for in-depth examination and nearly one third of those

Acknowledgements

We thank Ms D. Monkman and the Tzu-Chi Institute for Complementary and Alternative Medicine for consultation on search strategies and assistance in searching databases. We thank D. Mutasingwa, research assistant (University of Calgary), for his thorough and painstaking work and Ms S. Dewar (University of Calgary) for her exceptional and patient work in formatting the many drafts of the data abstraction tools, for ordering and tracking the many interlibrary loans, and for setting up and

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This study was supported by a grant through the Research Seed Fund of the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College.

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