<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:creator>Etter JF</dc:creator>
  <dc:creator>Perneger TV</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>1997</dc:date>
  <dc:description xmlns:ns0="xml" ns0:lang="en">The objective of this study was to identify characteristics of non-respondents and late respondents to a mailed health survey. Persons who returned and those who did not return the questionnaire were compared using health insurance data, which indicated their age, sex, and health care expenditures in the previous year. Insurance and questionnaire data were used to compare early and late survey respondents and to compare categories of non-respondents. Questions covered use of health services, health status, and sociodemographic characteristics. Participants were members of health insurance plans in Geneva, Switzerland, 19-45 years old (n = 1822). Respondents (n = 1424) and non-respondents (n = 398) were of similar age and sex. The proportion of persons who had health care expenditures greater than zero Swiss francs (SFr) was higher among respondents (75%) than among non-respondents (69%, p = 0.03). Among non-respondents, expenditures of persons who explicitly refused to participate (2378 SFr) were higher than expenditures of persons who moved out of Geneva (1085 SFr) or who failed to return the questionnaire (1592 SFr, p = .02). Among respondents, being born in a Switzerland, having completed elementary school, having generated health care expenditures, and reporting good physical health were independent predictors of early response. In conclusion, low response rates to mailed health surveys may result in overestimating the utilization of health services. However, non-respondents did not constitute a homogeneous group, and the strength and even direction of non-response bias depended on the mechanisms of non-response.</dc:description>
  <dc:identifier>https://sonar.ch/global/documents/145457</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>eng</dc:language>
  <dc:relation>info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1016/s0895-4356(97)00166-2</dc:relation>
  <dc:relation>info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/pmid/9368520</dc:relation>
  <dc:source>Journal of clinical epidemiology. - 1997</dc:source>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns1="xml" ns1:lang="en">Adult</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns2="xml" ns2:lang="en">Female</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns3="xml" ns3:lang="en">Health Expenditures</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns4="xml" ns4:lang="en">Health Services</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns5="xml" ns5:lang="en">Health Services Research</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns6="xml" ns6:lang="en">Health Status</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns7="xml" ns7:lang="en">Health Surveys</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns8="xml" ns8:lang="en">Humans</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns9="xml" ns9:lang="en">Income</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns10="xml" ns10:lang="en">Insurance, Health</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns11="xml" ns11:lang="en">Male</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns12="xml" ns12:lang="en">Middle Aged</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns13="xml" ns13:lang="en">Postal Service</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns14="xml" ns14:lang="en">Selection Bias</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns15="xml" ns15:lang="en">Sex Factors</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns16="xml" ns16:lang="en">Surveys and Questionnaires</dc:subject>
  <dc:subject xmlns:ns17="xml" ns17:lang="en">Switzerland</dc:subject>
  <dc:title xmlns:ns18="xml" ns18:lang="en">Analysis of non-response bias in a mailed health survey.</dc:title>
  <dc:type>http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>