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Abstract With declining response rates and challenges of using RDD sampling for telephone surveys, collecting data from address-based samples has become more attractive. Two approaches are doing telephone interviews at telephone numbers matched to addresses and asking those at sampled addresses to call into an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to answer questions. This study used in-person interviewing to evaluate the effects of nonresponse and problems matching telephone numbers when telephone and IVR were used as the initial modes of data collection. The survey questions were selected from major US federal surveys covering a variety of topics. Both nonresponse and, for telephone, inability to find matches result in important nonresponse error for nearly half the measures across all topics, even after adjustments to fit the known demographic characteristics of the residents. Producing credible estimates requires using supplemental data collection strategies to reduce error from nonresponse. 

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to assess nonresponse error in telephone health survey data based on an address‐based sample. Data SourcesTelephone and in‐person interviews in Greater Boston. Study Design/Data CollectionInterviewers attempted telephone interviews at addresses that were matched to telephone numbers using questions drawn from federal health surveys. In‐person household interviews were carried out with telephone nonrespondents and at addresses without matching telephone numbers. Principal FindingsAfter adjusting for demographic differences, only eight of 15 estimates based on the telephone interviews lay within two standard errors of the estimates when data from all three groups were included. ConclusionsFor health surveys of address‐based samples, many estimates based on telephone respondents differ from the total population in ways that cannot be corrected with simple demographic adjustments.