1 Gibson DG, et al. BMJ Global Health 2019;4:e001604. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2019-001604 Effect of airtime incentives on response and cooperation rates in non- communicable disease interactive voice response surveys: randomised controlled trials in Bangladesh and Uganda Dustin G Gibson,  1 Adaeze C. Wosu, 2 George William Pariyo, 1 Saifuddin Ahmed, 3 Joseph Ali, 1,4 Alain B Labrique, 1 Iqbal Ansary Khan, 5 Elizeus Rutebemberwa, 6 Meerjady Sabrina Flora, 5 Adnan A Hyder 1,7 Research To cite: Gibson DG, Wosu AC, Pariyo GW, et al. Effect of airtime incentives on response and cooperation rates in non-communicable disease interactive voice response surveys: randomised controlled trials in Bangladesh and Uganda. BMJ Global Health 2019;4:e001604. doi:10.1136/ bmjgh-2019-001604 Handling editor Soumitra S Bhuyan ► Additional material is published online only. To view, please visit the journal online (http://dx.doi.org/10. 1136bmjgh-2019-001604). Received 1 April 2019 Revised 19 August 2019 Accepted 25 August 2019 For numbered affliations see end of article. Correspondence to Dr Dustin G Gibson; dgibso28@jhu.edu © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. ABSTRACT Background The global proliferation of mobile phones offers opportunity for improved non-communicable disease (NCD) data collection by interviewing participants using interactive voice response (IVR) surveys. We assessed whether airtime incentives can improve cooperation and response rates for an NCD IVR survey in Bangladesh and Uganda. Methods Participants were randomised to three arms: a) no incentive, b) 1X incentive or c) 2X incentive, where X was set to airtime of 50 Bangladesh Taka (US$0.60) and 5000 Ugandan Shillings (UGX; US$1.35). Adults aged 18 years and older who had a working mobile phone were sampled using random digit dialling. The primary outcomes, cooperation and response rates as defned by the American Association of Public Opinion Research, were analysed using log-binomial regression model. Results Between 14 June and 14 July 2017, 440 262 phone calls were made in Bangladesh. The cooperation and response rates were, respectively, 28.8% (353/1227) and 19.2% (580/3016) in control, 39.2% (370/945) and 23.9% (507/2120) in 50 Taka and 40.0% (362/906) and 24.8% (532/2148) in 100 Taka incentive groups. Cooperation and response rates, respectively, were signifcantly higher in both the 50 Taka (risk ratio (RR) 1.36, 95% CI 1.21 to 1.53) and (RR 1.24, 95% CI 1.12 to 1.38), and 100 Taka groups (RR 1.39, 95% CI 1.23 to 1.56) and (RR 1.29, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.43), as compared with the controls. In Uganda, 174 157 phone calls were made from 26 March to 22 April 2017. The cooperation and response rates were, respectively, 44.7% (377/844) and 35.2% (552/1570) in control, 57.6% (404/701) and 39.3% (508/1293) in 5000 UGX and 58.8% (421/716) and 40.3% (535/1328) in 10 000 UGX groups. Cooperation and response rates were signifcantly higher, respectively in the 5000 UGX (RR 1.29, 95% CI 1.17 to 1.42) and (RR 1.12, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.23), and 10 000 UGX groups (RR 1.32, 95% CI 1.19 to 1.45) and (RR 1.15, 95% CI 1.04 to 1.26), as compared with the control group. Conclusion In two diverse settings, the provision of an airtime incentive signifcantly improved both the cooperation and response rates of an IVR survey, with no signifcant difference between the two incentive amounts. Trial registration number NCT03768323. Summary box What is already known? ► We published a literature review that documented the use of mobile phone surveys to collect popu- lation-representative estimates in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). ► We identifed six LMIC studies that examined the effect of airtime incentives on an interactive voice response (IVR) survey completion and their results were inconclusive. What are the new fndings? ► We employed a random digit dial sampling method and a standardised protocol to evaluate the effect of airtime incentives in Uganda and Bangladesh. ► We found that the small and large incentives simi- larly improved response and cooperation rates of an IVR survey. ► The provision of an airtime incentive approach cost-neutrality, with respect to the control arm, by reducing the number of incomplete interviews. What do the new fndings imply? ► Our study suggests that small airtime incentives may be a useful tool to improve mobile phone survey participation in LMIC. ► Although we observed a skewed distribution of com- plete interviews in favour of younger males, future studies may consider employing quota sampling to increase survey representativeness to obtain nation- al estimates. on June 2, 2020 by guest. Protected by copyright. http://gh.bmj.com/ BMJ Glob Health: first published as 10.1136/bmjgh-2019-001604 on 6 September 2019. Downloaded from