Survey participations rates reporting – toward standardization in epidemiological studies

Participation rates are recognized as key indicators of the quality of the data collected during a survey. This is particularly important in epidemiological studies where the findings are extrapolated from the study sample to the general population. The response rate is very frequently selected as the key indicator of the overall quality of the data collected but the literature search shows that there are many different ways to calculate it. Only the use of the whole set of participation rates allows assessment of both the quality of the survey (the quality of the data collected) and the reliability of the fieldwork. Standardization of the methods for calculating participation rates seems to be a prerequisite for a reliable comparison of the quality of population surveys.