Photo of MyVoice Project Manager Marika Waselewski, who gave the research presentation at the American Association for Public Opinion Research Annual Conference.
MyVoice project researchers are interested in hearing what young people ages 14-24 have to say on health-related policy issues that impact them. To understand the effectiveness of their text-based polls and what triggers high response rates, they recently conducted an internal evaluation titled, “Longitudinal Engagement of the MyVoice Nationwide Poll of Youth.”
Project Manager Marika Waselewski, MPH, gave an oral presentation on study results at the recent American Association for Public Opinion Research Annual Conference in St. Louis. Study co-authors include MyVoice member Sam Chuisano, MPH, and program Director Tammy Chang, MD, MPH, MS. To view the presentation slides, click here.
The researchers examined how the specific week of a text survey phase within the program’s eight-to-12-week blocks of surveys impacts the response rate. They also sought to understand how the topic of the survey influences response rates.
Waselewski et al examined survey data from 2018-2024, which encompassed 120 surveys and 3,185 youth participants. They studied distinct participants, demographics, and active phases. They also grouped survey topics into 11 categories.
Overall, study data showed that response rates among young people decreased over the course of the 12 weeks (by about 1% each week). However, overall rates remained high (at an average of 78% among participants).
The study also found response variation by topic. The least popular topics covered sexual and reproductive health while the most popular topics were related to COVID-19.
The team concluded that while the polls elicited high average response rates, they could adopt modified practices when sending out surveys to gain additional responses. These include:
- Asking important questions early within the 8–12-week survey phase to ensure the highest response rates on these sets.
- Sending out surveys on fun and easier topics later in the survey phase to sustain the response rates.
- Increasing the number of incentives provided for surveys sent later in the phase.
- Finding ways to engage more youth in the middle part of the survey phase.
“We truly appreciate the responses that each young person provides to us,” Waselewski said. “It would be great to hear from every young person we poll, so we believe there’s always ways to be even more engaging with our surveys. This study helped us generate some new ideas about how to achieve this.”