Double Sample to Minimize Bias Due to Non-response in a Mail Survey

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PSC Working Paper Series
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Biases
California
Double sample
Efficiency
Errors
Mail surveys
Non-response
Nursing
Pennsylvania
Random sample
Sample design
Sample surveys
Sampling
Statistical methods
Statistics
Survey Data
Survey methodology
Surveys
Applied Statistics
Demography, Population, and Ecology
Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies
Sociology
Statistics and Probability
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Abstract

A large study of nurses conducted in the U.S. states of California (CA) and Pennsylvania (PA) is based on two large samples: n^CA≈100,000 and n^PA≈65,000. The study was conducted by mail and had response rates of: p^CA=.27 and p^PA=.39 ;; the number of respondents is thus, respectively, : n_1^CA≈28,000 and n_1^PA≈25,000. Although there are many respondents, we must concern ourselves with the possibility of substantial bias due to non-response. In order to estimate and correct for this bias, a second random sample (n_01=1,300 in the two states combined) was drawn from among the non-respondents to the first survey. Thanks to financial incentives and, above all, a shorter questionnaire, we obtained a response rate above 90%. In each state, the two samples were combined to create a virtually unbiased double sample.

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2009-12-01
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Smith, Herbert L. 2009. “A Double Sample to Minimize Bias Due to Non-response in a Mail Survey.” Philadelphia, PA: Population Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania. PSC Working Paper Series, No. 09-05. [English version of Smith 2008.]
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