Email versus phone:
Is there a winner???
Experiences from the field


Kaenan Hertz, Ph.D.; Eric Zook, Ph.D.; Kira Sue Chitwood, BA: Macro International

Patrick W. O'Carroll, MD, MPH; Andrew Friede, MD, MPH: CDC


For more information, please contact: Kaenan Hertz at 404.321.3211 or hertz@macroint.com

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The following are slides from the presentation at the Survey96 conference:


Title Page

Purpose of the project

The Email survey (part 1)

The Email survey (part 2)
(Information on the phone survey was presented orally during the conference presentation. It is not detailed here.)

Response rates to the various surveys

Number of responses by date of receipt of response

Cummulative responses by date of response

Are surveys collected via Email comparable with those collected over the phone?

Number of respondents by type of survey and their use of WONDER

T-Test results comparing Email and Phone respondents on some key questions
These questions dealt with the extent to which respondent's felt that WONDER was important to them. Question's were scored from 1 (not important) to 5 (very important) and a negative T-Test value indicates that Email respondents had a higher rating for the particular issue compared to Phone respondents. This table presents results both for the total sample in each group as well as broken down into levels of usage for WONDER.

Are the results comparable (continued)

Implications and future research
At this time, I am undertaking a randomized-design experiment with another center of the CDC. For this experiment, I will be distributing a survey via Email, Phone, and Mail. The results of this project will highlight the differences in responses and response rates (based on the media) as well as cost differentials. If you would like any further information on either of these two projects, or some of the other projects I am working on, please feel free to contact me.

Happy Surveying!!

Kaenan Hertz


Click on the following links for more information on Macro International or the CDC or CDC WONDER.

hertz@macroint.com