Does pre-notification increase questionnaire response rates: a randomised controlled trial nested within a systematic review

Abstract Background Missing outcome data can lead to bias in the results of systematic reviews. One way to address missing outcome data is by requesting the data from the trial authors, but non-response is common. One way to potentially improve response rates is by sending study participants advance...

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Autores principales:	Benjamin Woolf, Phil Edwards
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	BMC 2021
Materias:	Pre-notification Randomised controlled trials Questionnaire response Medicine (General) R5-920
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/1eaefbd686274e2ca715ae433c49dfb7
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:1eaefbd686274e2ca715ae433c49dfb72021-11-28T12:38:43ZDoes pre-notification increase questionnaire response rates: a randomised controlled trial nested within a systematic review10.1186/s12874-021-01462-z1471-2288https://doaj.org/article/1eaefbd686274e2ca715ae433c49dfb72021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-021-01462-zhttps://doaj.org/toc/1471-2288Abstract Background Missing outcome data can lead to bias in the results of systematic reviews. One way to address missing outcome data is by requesting the data from the trial authors, but non-response is common. One way to potentially improve response rates is by sending study participants advance communication. During the update of a systematic review examining the effect of pre-notification on response rates, study authors needed to be contacted for further information. This study was nested within the systematic review by randomising authors to receive a notification of the upcoming request for information. The objective was to test if pre-notification increased response rates. Methods The participants were study authors included in the systematic review, whose studies were at unclear risk of bias. The intervention was a pre-notification of the request for further information, sent 1 day before the request. The outcome was defined as the proportion of authors who responded to the request for information. Authors were randomised by simple randomisation. Thirty three authors were randomised to the pre-notification arm, and 42 were randomised to the control arm. Authors were blinded to the possibility of an alternative condition. Results All authors randomised were analysed. 14/33 (42.4%) authors in the pre-notification arm had returned responses to the questionnaire, and 18/42 (42.9%) in the control arm. There was no evidence of a difference between these groups (absolute difference = − 0.5, 95% CI (− 23.4 to 22.5%), p = 1). We received no complaints about receiving the pre-notification. Conclusions This study’s results do not support the hypothesis that pre-notification increases response from study authors being contacted for a request for more information. However, the study has a low power, and the results may not generalise to other contexts, methods of administering a pre-notification, or study populations. Trial registration Registration and protocol: This trial is not registered with any trial registry. However, the protocol was posted in advance on the Open Science Framework website and is available on the Open Science Framework website: DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/MSV2W or https://osf.io/msv2w/Benjamin WoolfPhil EdwardsBMCarticlePre-notificationRandomised controlled trialsQuestionnaire responseMedicine (General)R5-920ENBMC Medical Research Methodology, Vol 21, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Pre-notification Randomised controlled trials Questionnaire response Medicine (General) R5-920
spellingShingle	Pre-notification Randomised controlled trials Questionnaire response Medicine (General) R5-920 Benjamin Woolf Phil Edwards Does pre-notification increase questionnaire response rates: a randomised controlled trial nested within a systematic review
description	Abstract Background Missing outcome data can lead to bias in the results of systematic reviews. One way to address missing outcome data is by requesting the data from the trial authors, but non-response is common. One way to potentially improve response rates is by sending study participants advance communication. During the update of a systematic review examining the effect of pre-notification on response rates, study authors needed to be contacted for further information. This study was nested within the systematic review by randomising authors to receive a notification of the upcoming request for information. The objective was to test if pre-notification increased response rates. Methods The participants were study authors included in the systematic review, whose studies were at unclear risk of bias. The intervention was a pre-notification of the request for further information, sent 1 day before the request. The outcome was defined as the proportion of authors who responded to the request for information. Authors were randomised by simple randomisation. Thirty three authors were randomised to the pre-notification arm, and 42 were randomised to the control arm. Authors were blinded to the possibility of an alternative condition. Results All authors randomised were analysed. 14/33 (42.4%) authors in the pre-notification arm had returned responses to the questionnaire, and 18/42 (42.9%) in the control arm. There was no evidence of a difference between these groups (absolute difference = − 0.5, 95% CI (− 23.4 to 22.5%), p = 1). We received no complaints about receiving the pre-notification. Conclusions This study’s results do not support the hypothesis that pre-notification increases response from study authors being contacted for a request for more information. However, the study has a low power, and the results may not generalise to other contexts, methods of administering a pre-notification, or study populations. Trial registration Registration and protocol: This trial is not registered with any trial registry. However, the protocol was posted in advance on the Open Science Framework website and is available on the Open Science Framework website: DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/MSV2W or https://osf.io/msv2w/
format	article
author	Benjamin Woolf Phil Edwards
author_facet	Benjamin Woolf Phil Edwards
author_sort	Benjamin Woolf
title	Does pre-notification increase questionnaire response rates: a randomised controlled trial nested within a systematic review
title_short	Does pre-notification increase questionnaire response rates: a randomised controlled trial nested within a systematic review
title_full	Does pre-notification increase questionnaire response rates: a randomised controlled trial nested within a systematic review
title_fullStr	Does pre-notification increase questionnaire response rates: a randomised controlled trial nested within a systematic review
title_full_unstemmed	Does pre-notification increase questionnaire response rates: a randomised controlled trial nested within a systematic review
title_sort	does pre-notification increase questionnaire response rates: a randomised controlled trial nested within a systematic review
publisher	BMC
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/1eaefbd686274e2ca715ae433c49dfb7
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Does pre-notification increase questionnaire response rates: a randomised controlled trial nested within a systematic review

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