Participation Rates in 11 National Dental Practice-Based Research Network Surveys 2014–2022
Open accessAbstract
Surveys of health professionals typically have low response rates, which have decreased in recent years. We report on the methods used, participation rates, and study time for 11 national questionnaire studies of dentists conducted from 2014–2022. Participation rates decreased (87%–25%). Concurrent with this decrease was a decrease in the intensity with which the practitioners were recruited. Participation rates were higher when postal mail invitation and paper options were used (84% vs. 58%, p < .001). Completion rates were nearly twice as high in studies that recruited in waves than those that did not (61% vs. 35%, p = .003). Study time varied from 2.6 to 28.4 weeks. Study time was longest when postal mail and completion on paper were used (26.0 vs. 11.3 weeks, p = .01). Among studies using only online methods, study time was longer when invitations were staggered than when all invitations went out in one bolus (means 12.0 and 5.2, p = .04). Study time was positively correlated with participation rates (Spearman r = .80, p = .005). General dentists participated at an average of 12% higher rates than specialists. Recruitment methodology, such as recruiting in waves or stages, should be considered when designing surveys.
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Recruiting practitioners is a persistent challenge for DPBRNs.
“It is clear that recruiting practitioners is a persistent challenge for DPBRNs. Without them, no research project can succeed [26,27].”
From Private Dental Practitioners' Experience in a Dental Practice-Based Research Network: A Qualitative Evaluation (2026) · cites this paper as [27]
The Discussion reports that participation among practitioners in one dental practice-based research network declined over eight years, supporting concern about recruiting them for surveys. The Methods clarify that these practitioners were already network members, and the Results say recruitment goals were met for every study. The paper therefore does not establish that recruiting practitioners into DPBRNs is a persistent challenge across networks. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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- Authors
- Funkhouser, E., Mungia, R., Laws, R., Nyongesa, D. B., Gillespie, S., Leo, M. C., McBurnie, M. A., Gilbert, G. H., & National Dental PBRN Collaborative Group
- Affiliations
- University of Alabama at Birmingham (US)
- The University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center (US)
- Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Evaluation & the Health Professions
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2024-06-06
- Volume
- 48
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 242-255
- ISSN
- 0163-2787 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-3918
- PMC
- PMC11829272
- OpenAlex
- W4399380298
- Semantic Scholar
- b4ba634389c49cedc7daaf07a7683d662835fecc
- Cited by
- 5
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2
- FWCI
- 3.57
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Locations
- Evaluation & the Health Professions (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (U19-DE-22516, U19-DE-28717, and U01-DE-28727)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Survey Methodology and Nonresponse
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Survey Sampling and Estimation Techniques
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Dental Education, Practice, Research
- Keywords
- survey response rates, survey participation, dentist survey, recruitment strategies, online surveys, study time, general dentists, dental practice-based research network
- MeSH terms
- Dentists, Female, Humans, Surveys and Questionnaires, Time Factors, United States, Dental Research
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