Information on Incentives

Attachment 4

Evidence for Incentives

Prepared by Westat, March 31, 2014

Federal Studies involving Incentives (2012 – present)

Client	Interview Length (minutes)	Incentive Amount	Interview type	Population	OMB Clearance Number
Bureau of Justice Statistics	90	$ 40.00	In-person	Crime victims in last 12 months	1121-0325, expiry 7/31/2015
NCI FLASHE	30	$75.00	In-person	Youth ages 12-17 and parents	0925-0589, expiry 7/31/2017
Food and Nutrition Services, USDA	60	$60.00	In-person	SNAP recipients	0584-0564, expiry 10/31/2017
Department of Health and Human Services	90	$50.00	In-person	Mix of respondents with different health issues, smokers	0925-0589, expiry 7/31/2017
HINTS	90	$50.00	In-person	Mix of cancer patients and general population	0925-0589, expiry 7/31/2017
HINTS	90	$50.00	In-person	18 years or older	0925-0589, expiry 7/31/2017
Bureau of Justice Statistics	60	$50.00	In-person	Crime victim within last 12 months	1121-0325, expiry 7/31/2015
Bureau of Justice Statistics	90	$40.00	In-person	Crime victim within past 12 months	1121-0325, expiry 7/31/2015
NCI	120	$40.00	In-person, followed by phone interview	Respondents with android cell phones	0925-0642, expiry 08/31/2017
NCI	60	$50.00	In-person	General population, mix of ethnicity, gender, & education	0925-0645, expiry 12/31/2014

Correlation between Recruiting Effort and Incentive Amounts

Incentive Amounts	Average number of recruiting hours spent per respondent scheduled	n (Number of tasks included in calculation)
$60-75	1.91	6
$50	3.99	8
$40	5.11	6

Sample Impact of Incentive on Recruitment Budget

Scope of Work

Recruit and conduct 8 focus groups, each group 90 minutes with 5-7 women

• 2 with inactive, white women of childbearing age

• 2 with inactive, African-American women of childbearing age

• 2 with inactive, Latina women of childbearing age

• 2 with active women (mixed ethnicity) of childbearing age

Recruitment Assumptions

No-show rate

• Typically, we would recruit 9 respondents to ensure that 5-7 show for the focus group itself. As incentives decrease, the no-show rate increases. Based on feedback from local facilities, lower incentives result in a no-show rate of more than 50%.

Recruiting hours per respondent

• We have no experience recruiting for 90-minute focus groups with such a low incentive. However, based on our experience recruiting for cognitive interviews (typically shorter) for smaller amounts, we estimate 6 recruiting hours per respondent for a $40 or $50 incentive. As incentives decrease, recruiting effort (and recruiting hours) increase.

Incentive Amount	Recruitment goals for each focus group	Number of recruiting hours per respondent	Increase in budget with decrease in incentive
$50	Recruit 9 for 5-7 to show	6
$40	Recruit 11 for 5-7 to show	6	+ $2500
$25	Recruit 13 for 5-7 to show	8	+ $5700

Feedback from Local Focus Group Facilities (based on 90 minute in-person interview)

Shugoll Research

Recommended $100 incentive.  Based on their experience, incentives of $50 and lower result in over half of the recruited respondents failing to show.

Observation Baltimore

Recommended $85 incentive, although noted that recruitment of Latino respondents typically required a higher incentive of at least $100.  Based on their experiences, a $25 or $40 incentive would only be sufficient to recruit a 15-minute telephone interview for this population.

EurekaFacts

Recommended $100 incentive.  Could potentially recruit with an incentive as low as $50, but would require a larger recruiting effort and would result in a higher no-show rate.