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document
Can incentives undermine intrinsic motivation to participate in epidemiologic surveys ? Response rates to surveys are decreasing . The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of lottery tickets as incentives in an epidemiologic control group . A self-administered questionnaire was sent to parents in the municipality of Stockholm , Sweden , who were to be used as a control group in a study addressing stress in parents of children with cancer . A stratified random sample of 450 parents were randomized into three incentive groups : ( a ) no incentive ; ( b ) a promised incentive of one lottery ticket to be received upon reply ; ( c ) a promised incentive of one lottery ticket to be received upon reply and an additional lottery ticket upon reply within 1 week . The overall response rate across the three groups was 65.3 % . The response rate was highest in the no incentive group ( 69.3 % ) and lowest in the one plus one lottery ticket group ( 62.0 % ) . In a survival analysis , the difference between the two response curves was significant by the log-rank test ( P = 0.04 ) , with the no incentive group having a shorter time to response than the incentive group . Our findings suggest that the use of lottery tickets as incentives to increase participation in a mail questionnaire among parents may be less valuable or even harmful . Incentives may undermine motivation in studies in which the intrinsic motivation of the respondents is already high .
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Intervention_Educational
incentives
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Intervention_Educational
use of lottery tickets as incentives
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Intervention_Control
no incentive
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Intervention_Educational
promised incentive of one lottery ticket to be received upon reply
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Intervention_Educational
promised incentive of one lottery ticket to be received upon reply and an additional lottery ticket upon reply within 1 week
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Intervention_Control
no incentive group
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Intervention_Educational
one plus one lottery ticket group
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Intervention_Educational
incentive group
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Intervention_Educational
lottery tickets
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Intervention_Educational
Incentives
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Outcome_Mental
intrinsic motivation
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Outcome_Mental
response rate
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Outcome_Mortality
survival analysis
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Outcome_Mental
increase participation
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Outcome_Mental
motivation
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Participant_Condition
epidemiologic control group .
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Participant_Condition
self-administered questionnaire was sent to parents in the municipality of Stockholm , Sweden , who were to be used as a control group in a study addressing stress in parents of
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Participant_Age
children
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Participant_Condition
with cancer .
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Participant_Sample-size
450