What is it about?
Social good coming from postal surveys (e.g., learning to prevent the causes and consequences of trauma) have to be balanced against the risks to trauma survivors who take part in such surveys. In this study we modified information in a postal survey's cover letter to see if it influenced participants' post-survey sadness and tenseness. We learned that our survey had very small effects on participants' sadness and tenseness, even in groups we thought were at higher risk for emotional upset. We saw slight differences in the direction of emotional change in men and women who thought the cover letter offered enough information about the survey's content.
Featured Image
Photo by Matthias Oberholzer on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The study showed that cover letters to postal surveys can be designed to balance risks to study participants and risks for nonresponse bias.
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Impact of different cover letter information and incentives on Veterans’ emotional responses to an unsolicited mailed survey about military traumas: a randomized, 3x2x2 factorial trial, BMC Medical Research Methodology, December 2022, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1186/s12874-022-01783-7.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
