Effects of a small monetary incentive and follow-up mailings on return rates of a survey to nurse practitioners

The purpose was to examine the effectiveness of a modest monetary incentive ($1) and none in increasing the response rate of a mail survey to 600 nurse practitioners. The response rate in the incentive group was 81% and 66% in the control group, significant by chi-square test. The most cost effective survey technique for increasing the response rate of nurse practitioners was to code the envelopes and eliminate the monetary incentive.