Ville Helasoja|Ritva Prättälä|Liudmila Dregval|Iveta Pudule|Anu Kasmel
Late response and item nonresponse in the Finbalt Health Monitor Survey
finbalt health monitor collaborative system monitoring healthrelated behaviour practices lifestyles estonia finland latvia lithuania system based nationally representative samples selfadministered mailed questionnaires comparing results national surveys awareness direction socioeconomic patterning response bias essentialthe data gathered crosssectional surveys conducted 1998 estonia n 1362 finland n 3504 latvia n 2322 lithuania n 1874 analysis made prevalence late response completeness information obtained respondents magnitude response bias prevalence estimates health behaviour indicatorsthe response rates comparatively high 68 estonia 70 finland 77 latvia 62 lithuania late response weakly related age education place residence total proportion missing information 10 sociodemographic patterning missing information similar countries thus older lesseducated respondents missing information questionnaires response bias prevalence estimates minimal calculated using information obtained late respondentsthe level nonresponse missing information comparable different countries information health behaviour therefore special efforts needed design questionnaire form appears equally relevant respondent groups followup mailings effective way increase total response rate unlikely provided effective way reach hard core nonrespondents