abstract: 'Background: Declining response rates are a common challenge to

  epidemiological research. Response rates further are particularly low

  among young people. We thus aimed to identify factors associated with

  health survey response among young employees using different data

  collection methods.

  Methods: We included fully register-based data to identify key

  socioeconomic, workplace and health-related factors associated with

  response to a health survey collected via online and mailed

  questionnaires. Additionally, telephone interviews were conducted for

  those who had not responded via online or to the mailed survey. The

  survey data collection was done in autumn 2017 among young employees of

  the City of Helsinki, Finland (18-39 years, target population n=11,459).

  Results: The overall response to the survey was 51.5\% (n=5898). The

  overall findings suggest that differences in the distributions of

  socioeconomic, workplace and health-related factors between respondents

  in the online or mailed surveys, or telephone interviews, are relatively

  minor. Telephone interview respondents were of lower socioeconomic

  position, which helped improve representativeness of the entire cohort.

  Despite the general broad representativeness of the data, some

  socioeconomic and health-related factors contributed to response. Thus,

  non-respondents were more often men, manual workers, from the lowest

  income quartile, had part-time jobs, and had more long sickness absence

  spells. In turn, job contract (permanent or temporary) and employment

  sector did not affect survey response.

  Conclusions: Despite a general representativeness of data of the target

  population, socioeconomically more disadvantaged and those with long

  sickness absence, are slightly overrepresented among non-respondents.

  This suggests that when studying the associations between social factors

  and health, the associations can be weaker than if complete data were

  available representing all socioeconomic groups.'
affiliation: 'Lallukka, T (Corresponding Author), Univ Helsinki, Dept Publ Hlth, POB
  20, Helsinki 00014, Finland.

  Lallukka, T (Corresponding Author), Finnish Inst Occupat Hlth, Helsinki, Finland.

  Lallukka, Tea; Pietilaeinen, Olli; Jaeppinen, Sauli; Lahti, Jouni; Rahkonen, Ossi,
  Univ Helsinki, Dept Publ Hlth, POB 20, Helsinki 00014, Finland.

  Lallukka, Tea, Finnish Inst Occupat Hlth, Helsinki, Finland.

  Laaksonen, Mikko, Finnish Ctr Pens, Helsinki, Finland.

  Jaeppinen, Sauli, Social Insurance Inst Finland, Helsinki, Finland.'
article-number: '184'
author: Lallukka, Tea and Pietilaeinen, Olli and Jaeppinen, Sauli and Laaksonen, Mikko
  and Lahti, Jouni and Rahkonen, Ossi
author-email: tea.lallukka@helsinki.fi
author_list:
- family: Lallukka
  given: Tea
- family: Pietilaeinen
  given: Olli
- family: Jaeppinen
  given: Sauli
- family: Laaksonen
  given: Mikko
- family: Lahti
  given: Jouni
- family: Rahkonen
  given: Ossi
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-8241-8
eissn: 1471-2458
files: []
journal: BMC PUBLIC HEALTH
keywords: 'Mail survey; Online survey; Telephone interview; Young employees;

  Participation; Response; Socioeconomic factors; Workplace;

  Health-related factors; Register linkages'
keywords-plus: 'OCCUPATIONAL SOCIAL-CLASS; DISABILITY RETIREMENT; CLASS INEQUALITIES;

  SURVEY RESPONDENTS; WORKING-CONDITIONS; FOLLOW-UP; NONRESPONSE;

  NONPARTICIPATION; PARTICIPATION; BEHAVIORS'
language: English
month: FEB 5
number: '1'
number-of-cited-references: '29'
orcid-numbers: 'Jappinen, Sauli/0000-0002-0286-3390

  Lallukka, Tea/0000-0003-3841-3129

  Rahkonen, Ossi/0000-0002-7202-3274'
papis_id: 83e3b8545f43f6113409f0c86e4c15ca
ref: Lallukka2020factorsassociated
researcherid-numbers: 'Pietiläinen, Olli/AAO-1700-2021

  '
times-cited: '39'
title: 'Factors associated with health survey response among young employees: a register-based
  study using online, mailed and telephone interview data collection methods'
type: article
unique-id: WOS:000513899800001
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '5'
volume: '20'
web-of-science-categories: Public, Environmental \& Occupational Health
year: '2020'