Abstract
Background/Aims The aim was to describe the percentages and characteristics of seniors eligible to receive an emailed link to an online health survey and that chose to respond online vs. by hardcopy.
Methods We analyzed the response (69%) to a health survey mailed to 9796 seniors with contact letter containing url for online version; 5064 of these also were sent emails with a link to their personalized online survey. Response data was linked with age (65–69, 70–74, 75–79, 80), gender, race/ethnicity, and education from other sources.
Results We found: (1) Eligibility to receive the emailed link declined with age (65–69, 62.5%; 70–74, 53.5%; 75–79, 47.7%; 80, 40.1%); increased with education (<12 yrs, 33.4%; high school graduate, 44.0%; some college, 55.9%; college grad, 64.8%), and was lower among African-Americans, Latinos, and Filipinos compared to nonHispanic Whites, Chinese, and Japanese ethnicities (33.9%, 37.8%, and 43.8% vs. 56.6%, 57.0%, and 53.4%, respectively); (2) Only 8.2% of respondents completed the survey online. Respondent online participation declined with age (13.6%, 10.2%, 5.8%, and 3.5%, respectively), was higher among those with some college or college degree (1.5%, 4.6% vs. 9.2%, 11.3%, respectively), and was higher among those sent emails (approximately 18% of 65–74 and 9% of 75 vs. <1% of those not sent an email; by education: 4.1%, 9.8%, 15.6%, and 16.5% vs. 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.9%, and 1.4%); (3) Of those who received the email and completed the survey online, approximately 61% reached the survey using the hyperlink. Seniors aged >75 were more likely to use the hyperlink than those aged 65–74 (68.1% vs. 56.7%); and (4) Due to relatively small differences in response by age, the age distribution of the initial and final samples are essentially the same. However, had the survey only been conducted online, the resultant sample, in addition to being significantly smaller, would have been significantly younger, better educated, and less representative of the race-ethnic distribution of the population.
Conclusions Results suggest that most seniors still prefer print over online questionnaires, even when emailed a link to the online survey. Without an emailed link, online participation will be hard to achieve.
