Utility of telephone survey methods in population-based health studies of older adults: an example from the Alberta Older Adult Health Behavior (ALERT) study

Table 2 Final call dispositions for main study

Final disposition number	Final outcome of call attempts	Total participants
		n	%
	Completed interviews	1, 296	3.6
01	No answer	3,829	10.6
02	Busy	433	1.2
03	Answering machine	5,163	14.3
04	Line trouble	659	1.8
05	Quota full¹	182	0.5
06	Call back²	343	1.0
07	Language problem	220	0.6
08	Not in service	3,587	10.0
09	Business, fax	6,240	17.3
10	Permanent no contact³	222	0.6
11	Claimed to be on the National Do Not Call List⁴	19	0.1
12	Ineligible - No 55+ in household	8,193	22.8
13	Ineligible – Unable to walk unassisted	214	0.6
14	Will call lab	12	0.0
15	Cell phone, do not want to be disturbed	79	0.2
16	8 or more call attempts	106	0.3
17	Refused	4,913	13.6
18	Refused pedometer	290	0.8
Total telephone allocated		36,000	100
Participation rate (%)		19.3

¹Female quota reached.
²Data collection already completed. Household not re-contacted.
³Households not available for the duration of the survey (e.g., on vacation, family crisis).
⁴Launched in September 2008 to legislate unsolicited marketing or sales calls.

ISSN: 1471-2458