Decreasing response rates and increasing data collection costs are enduring survey challenges. This presentation reports results from two randomized experiments embedded within two
nationally representative establishment surveys, one of 5,000 adult day services centers and the other of 11,700 assisting living communities, both part of the 2012 National Study of Long-Term Care Providers (NSLTCP) sponsored by the National Center for Health Statistics. NSLTCP includes substantially redesigned surveys that changed from in-person to less expensive data collection modes. The main rationale for both experiments is to examine whether survey respondents can be encouraged to participate using less expensive modes. The base protocol for each survey included advance letter, first questionnaire mailing, thank you/reminder letter, second and third questionnaire mailings, then computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) for non-respondents; both mail and Web options were provided in all questionnaire mailings. In the “drive to the Web” experiment, treatment cases were provided only the Web option until the third questionnaire mailing, when they were also given the mail option. Among cases in the “explicit forewarning of non-response follow-up by telephone” experimental group, the thank you/reminder letter stated that if they did not respond via Web or mail by a specific date they would be called to complete the questionnaire by telephone. The premise is that the respondents may prefer to complete the survey on their own schedule, which they can do more readily by mail or Web than by telephone. We hypothesize for both experiments that compared to the control group, the treatment group will have a higher response rate prior to CATI and at the end of the field period. For the Web experiment, we expect a higher response rate by Web compared to the control. Nonresponse bias and itemmissing rates will be examined. Results of both experiments and implications will be discussed.