Participation in the National Health Interview Survey: Exploring 

Reasons for Reluctance Using Contact History Process Data1

Nancy Bates and Andrea Piani 

U.S. Census Bureau 

Room 3335-3, Washington, DC 20233, Nancy.A.Bates@census.gov, Andrea.L.Piani@census.gov

Keywords: health surveys, computer-assisted personal interview, call records, refusals 

1. Abstract 

In 2002-2003, the Census Bureau designed an automated contact history data collection system known as the Contact History

Instrument (CHI). The CHI was developed as a stand-alone Blaise instrument designed to work across all Census Bureau

demographic computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI) surveys as part of the case management system. Interviewers use 

the CHI to record the number of contact attempts, mode, date and time of attempt as well as details behind various interim 

outcomes (e.g., reasons for refusals and strategies attempted). 

Using CHI data from the 2005 National Health Interview Survey we explore the reasons why some households are reluctant

to participate in the interview process. We base the analysis on 10 weeks of CHI data representing over 45,000 visit attempts

to 15,000 households. We investigate the extent of reluctance, what the most frequently cited reasons are, and whether these 

vary by case characteristics such as region, urbanicity, or mode of contact. We also report how patterns of reluctance may 

change as the number of contacts increases. Finally, we examine whether the number of concerns expressed is related to

refusal rates and also whether some reasons are more highly correlated with the decision to refuse. 

2. Background

2.1 Decision to participate in a survey 

The survey methods literature proposes various theories about why individuals choose to participate in surveys. Some

theoretical perspectives focus on opportunity costs associated with the respondent burden that comes with survey

participation while others look to social isolation theory to explain why some people choose to refuse. Broader theoretical 

underpinnings such as social exchange theory, the norm of reciprocity, and economic exchange can help explain why certain

incentives work to encourage participation and under what conditions. 

Groves, Caldini and Couper (1992) outline key socio-demographic and survey design factors including degree of social 

responsibility, mode of contact, survey length and topic, and characteristics of the sample person such as age, gender and 

income, and attributes of the interviewer including prior experience and demographic characteristics. The authors argue that

the interaction of these factors impacts the respondent-interviewer interaction, which in turn has bearing on whether the

respondent participates. Leverage-saliency theory (Groves, Singer and Corning, 2000), offers an explanation as to why the 

effectiveness of survey design features varies among subgroups. According to this theory, survey design attributes (e.g., 

advance letters, survey topic, incentives) exert different leverage on the cooperation decision depending upon the sample

person. For example, incentives may have a great deal of leverage for someone who is not interested in the survey topic, but

little to no leverage for a sample person for whom the survey topic is very salient. 

The literature is full of empirical studies that manipulate, test, and measure the impact that survey design features have on 

one’s decision to participate (e.g., Hembroff, Rusz, Raferty, McGee and Ehrlich, 2005; Groves, Presser, and Dipko 2004;

Trussel and Lavrakas, 2004; Groves, Singer, and Corning, 2000; Singer, Van Hoewyk, and Maher, 2000). However, it’s rare

to find studies that document behavior of both respondents and nonrespondents prior to the final survey outcome. Such

information is generally recorded more informally by way of interviewer notes and/or verbal communications among 

1 DISCLAIMER: This report is released to inform interested parties of ongoing research and to encourage discussion of work

in progress. The views expressed are the authors and not necessarily those of the U.S. Census Bureau. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

interviewers or between interviewers and supervisors. Consequently, the reasons why people decline to participate (or 

ultimately agree to participate) are usually anecdotal and rarely quantified in a meaningful way that can be analyzed 

alongside respondent data, ancillary sample data, or other survey process data. This paper does so by studying the reasons 

that households commonly give when declining to participate. 

2.2 The National Health Interview Survey: background and methodology 

The National Health Interview Survey is a household-based survey that has been conducted since 1957. Its primary purpose 

is to provide information on a continuing basis about the prevalence and distribution of illness, its effects in terms of

disability and chronic impairments, and the kind of health services people receive. A core set of questions are asked every 

year, and one or more sets of supplemental questions are added each year to gather information on topics that are not covered 

in the core set of questions. For 2005 data collection, the NHIS includes a Cancer Topical Module as well as questions on 

Child Mental Health. On average, the NHIS takes about 1 hour to complete. 

The Census Bureau collects the data for the National Centers for Health Statistics which is part of the Centers for Disease 

Control and Prevention. Originally administered as a paper questionnaire, the survey was moved to a DOS-based CAPI

environment in 1996, and more recently, in 2004, to a Windows-based CAPI environment programmed using Blaise survey

instrument software. The initial visit is made in person and the majority of subsequent contacts are personal visit as well. 

However, contact may be attempted by telephone if the respondent requests it, if it is the only way an interview can be

completed, or other factors make telephone the most efficient mode. The NHIS is a one-time survey, that is, respondents are

in sample only once. 

2.3 The Contact History Instrument: background and history

The CHI was designed as a mechanism for systematically collecting process data from CAPI surveys conducted by the 

Census Bureau. Previous to the CHI, information about contact attempts was not automated and the study of such data was

restricted to open-ended interviewer notes. This made analysis cumbersome and somewhat unreliable. The CHI is a standalone Blaise instrument residing in the CAPI case management system. It can be started from case management or is

launched automatically whenever the survey instrument is opened. Interviewers are trained to complete a CHI record every 

time a contact attempt is made. This includes personal visit non-contacts, contacts with sample unit members, contacts with

non-sample unit members, observational “drive-bys”, and de-centralized phone calls placed from the interviewers’ homes.

Interviewers use the CHI to record the number of contact attempts, mode, date and time of attempt as well as details behind 

various interim outcomes (e.g., reasons for refusals and strategies attempted). Data from the CHI are displayed on individual

laptops in the case management system for use by interviewers. CHI data are also displayed at case level and in aggregate 

report form for use by the regional offices. The CHI data are processed and provided as SAS datasets to headquarters and

sponsors at set intervals throughout the data collection period. The CHI was first used in production for the 2004 NHIS. 

3. Limitations of the data and analysis

This paper represents a descriptive bivariate analysis of survey process data with specific concentration on information about

reluctance to participate in the NHIS. The results are exploratory in nature and are meant to inform future stages of a

multivariate analysis. Because topic saliency may influence the decision to participate, the results presented here should not

be generalized beyond health surveys. 

Most of the analysis is conducted using households as the unit of analysis. While the NHIS samples households, there are 

instances where multiple unrelated families reside within the same dwelling unit. In these situations, a new case is 

“spawned” from the original and given a unique identifier and a blank slate for recording CHI. The CHI data for such cases

can be somewhat convoluted as it becomes impossible to distinguish exactly which CHI record reflects contact for a

particular family. To simplify the analysis we chose to ignore these complications and left the unit of analysis at the

“household” level with the understanding that some households are really at the family level. This should not have a large

impact on the analysis as families that are part of multiple-family households represented only 3.6 percent of the NHIS cases 

studied. The majority of analysis is restricted to in-scope cases and “screened-out” cases. Screened-out cases represent cases

flagged as part of the oversampling process for black and Hispanic populations. Interviewers make contact with these 

households and administer some basic household demographic questions. Households flagged for the over-sample that do

not contain any black or Hispanic members are screened-out of the NHIS. While these cases are not part of the final NHIS, 

interviewers must make contact and conduct a short interview in order to screen them out. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another limitation is that information recorded in the CHI could reflect contact with different sample unit members. For 

example, on the initial visit, the interviewer may make contact with the wife of a married couple but on subsequent visits,

make contact with the husband. Each CHI entry will reflect the reluctance/concerns/behaviors of the particular person (or 

persons) with whom the interviewer interacts, but the CHI does not have an indicator to link a CHI record with a particular 

sample unit member.

For much of the analysis, we report whether certain behaviors, concerns, or reluctance were recorded (yes or no). To 

simplify the analysis, we report whether a particular concern was reported during at least one contact. This suppresses some

of the detail of the CHI data because in some cases, a particular concern was voiced multiple times over multiple contacts. 

Another limitation is that the CHI data does not reflect all of the NHIS cases studied during the 10 week time period2

. There 

were a total of 15,434 sample cases completed during the 10 week period studied but CHI data was gathered for only 15,057

CHI households. Consequently, a small number of cases (2.4 percent) are not represented in our analysis. These resulted

from a computer malfunction or, more likely, when interviewers purposely bypassed the CHI instrument.3

A final limitation is that CHI data are subjective to some degree. Interviewers are instructed to record the types of concerns,

reluctance and behaviors they encounter at every contact. Some interviewers are inclined to perform this task with regularity 

while others may skip an entry here and there and/or may not select all categories that reflect a sample person’s reluctance. In 

addition, because there are many categories (23), there is almost certainly an order effect to some degree. Another 

consideration is that interviewers can change if a reassignment is made (for example, the interviewer quits or goes on

vacation or the case is re-assigned to a supervisory interviewer for refusal conversion). In these cases, more than one 

interviewer will have entered CHI data for the same household (13.4 percent of households studied had an interviewer

reassignment). 

To get a sense of how well CHI data reflect attempted contacts we compared the average number of personal visit CHI

records to an independent measure of personal visits per case. This measure comes from the end of the NHIS survey

whereby interviewers are asked to record the total number of personal visit attempts. We calculated the mean number of

personal visit contact attempts for interviewed cases as reported in the CHI and compared it to the measure from the NHIS

instrument4

. The mean number of personal visits according to the CHI was 2.3 while the average from the instrument was

3.1. The median in both cases was 2. Which measure is most accurate, we cannot say. We suspect the CHI may underrepresent attempts that do not result in a contact because interviewers may not always record them. On the other hand, we 

suspect the “total count” question from the instrument may over-represent number of attempts if interviewers feel compelled

to err on the high side to indicate level of effort.

4. Results 

4.1 How much reluctance was encountered?

To date, the NHIS continues to achieve a high response rate by industry standards. This is likely because the survey is 

federally sponsored and is conducted face-to-face with interviewers that have an average of 10 years experience (Bitzer, 

2005). But, like other surveys, the NHIS has experienced decreased household response rates over the past decade. For

example, the response rate was 95.5 percent in 1990 but had decreased to 86.9 percent by 2004 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005).

The lion’s share of reasons for these noninterviews are refusals. CHI data represent information never before available that

enable us to take a closer look behind households that express reluctance – both those who eventually participate as well as 

those who steadfastly refuse from beginning to end.

To begin, we examined the degree to which interviewers recorded certain concerns, reluctance, or behaviors that might 

indicate a barrier to cooperating with the NHIS. These behaviors were measured by a “reluctance” screen which listed

common reasons for refusing or postponing survey participation. The screen consisted of 23 categories including a “no

concerns” category. Interviewers encounter the screen every time they record having made contact with a sample unit 

member -- attempts resulting in a noncontact skip over the screen. The screen is a “mark all that apply” allowing multiple 

reasons to be recorded during a single contact. In cases where the sample unit member does not express any concerns or

2 The 10 week period spanned the months of March, April, and May, 2005. 

3

 Cases without a CHI record tended to be clustered among a small number of interviewers. 

4 Due to a data processing specification error, visit count from the instrument was available only for interviewed cases. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

reluctance, interviewers are instructed to select the “no concerns” category. A catch-all “other specify” category is included

to record information not specifically mentioned in the category list. Interviewers were trained to record the types of

reluctance encountered on each particular contact. The screen is not intended to act as a cumulative measure of

concerns/reluctance/behaviors voiced during previous contacts. 

Since the CHI was designed to work across all Census Bureau surveys, not all categories apply to all surveys. For example,

five of the categories are intended for panel or longitudinal surveys and, consequently do not apply directly to the NHIS (see 

Figure 1 for screen shot). For purposes of this paper, these categories are not included in the analyses5

. 

We examined the reluctance screen data summarized at the household level for the entire sample and then by region. Chart 1 

illustrates the frequency with which interviewers marked the “no concern” category during at least one contact with

households. The results can be viewed as somewhat encouraging -- of households where one or more contact was made, 

interviewers indicated that close to three-quarters (72.3 percent) expressed no concerns/reluctance during at least one of the 

contacts. However, this indicator did vary across regions of the country6

. For example, lack of concern was most prevalent 

in the Charlotte regional office that includes several southern states (Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and 

South Carolina). For this region, the percentage of “no concern” households was 81.5 percent. On the other hand, the New 

York regional office which covers parts of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states (Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and 

New Jersey) was much lower at 53.9 percent. And, in fact, the New York region had the lowest interview rate7

of any region 

during the weeks studied (79 percent). But while the Charlotte region had a higher interview rate compared to New York 

(88 percent), it did not have the highest rate -- the Atlanta region had the absolute highest interview rate at 93 percent. In

summary, our rudimentary examination of “no concerns” by response rates does not appear to yield a perfect one-to-one

relationship.

4.2 Most common reasons for reluctance 

Next, we examined the frequency of reasons among households that had some type of concerns. Chart 2 illustrates the 

relative frequency of categories selected. The base includes households for which at least one contact was made during the 

field period. The bars indicate the overall percent of households expressing a particular concern/reluctance/behavior during

one or more contacts. 

The most popular reason cited was time-related. In over 20 percent (21.1 percent) of households, interviewers indicated the

sample unit members were “too busy” to participate in the survey at the time of contact. The next two most common reasons 

offered up were “privacy concerns” at just under 13 percent (12.6%) and “not interested/does not want to be bothered” at

12.1 percent. The fourth most cited reason was also time-related and deals with perceived respondent burden – “interview

takes too much time” (9.5 percent of households cited this reason during at least one contact). Rounding out the remaining 

top ten reasons/behaviors are:

5) other – specify (open-ended write-in); 

6) scheduling difficulties; 

7) survey is voluntary; 

8) does not understand survey/asks questions about survey; 

 9) anti-government concerns; and, 

10) hangs up/slams door. 

Because the “Other-specify” category was selected frequently, we closely examined the write-in responses. We found that 

about 15 percent of the “other-specify” entries actually reflected one of the close-ended categories available from the

response option checklist, for example, respondent had privacy concerns or was too busy. The most frequently occurring

write-ins were narratives indicating general apathy or opposition to the survey. Among others, these included respondents 

who viewed the survey as a waste of time with no personal benefit and those who were evasive and/or reluctant without 

giving a specific reason. Write-ins expressing such views accounted for roughly 20% of all responses. Second and third to 

5

In fact, there were a few instances where interviewers selected a category intended only for panel surveys. However, none

of categories 16-21 were selected more than 1% of the time. 

6 The Census Bureau Field Division is divided into twelve regional offices, each encompassing various states and 

metropolitan areas. 

7

Interview rates were calculated by Regional Office for the 10 weeks studied. These rates do not reflect final interview rates.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this category were write-ins suggesting language barriers or health issues (concerning either the respondent’s own health or 

the health of family members or friends) that prevented participation.

In Table 1, we break out distributions of concerns/reluctance/behaviors by urban versus rural sample cases8

. A few 

distributions are noticeably different between the two. First, rural households had a higher incidence of at least one contact

where “no concerns” was recorded (79.4 percent) compared to urban households (70.2 percent). This is not surprising

considering that the NHIS (and other federal demographic surveys) routinely see higher interview rates in rural areas 

compared to urban centers. Urban households were more likely to express privacy concerns and say they were “not

interested/do not want to be bothered” (see Table 1). Finally, urban households were more likely to use the excuse of being 

“too busy” compared to rural cases (22.9 percent versus 15 percent, respectively). In addition to urban/rural, we examined

the reason codes by mode of contact9

(data not shown). Overall, there were few differences between mode and the frequency

and type of concern expressed. However, we did see a higher frequency of “scheduling difficulties” and “interview takes too

long” when the contact was by phone compared to personal visit. Additionally, households were more likely to say “no

concerns” during personal visits. In households where contact was made by personal visit, 59 percent indicated “no

concerns” during one or more contacts compared to 50 percent when contact was by telephone. 

We next compared and contrasted the top five reasons by Census Bureau regional office to explore the order and magnitude

of any differences. As alluded to earlier, the New York region exhibited the highest absolute percentage of households that

expressed concerns (any category) while the Charlotte region had the lowest frequency. But while the degree of concerns 

may have varied across the regions, the categories themselves and ordering was pretty much consistent. For example, with

the exception of the Detroit, Kansas City and Dallas regions, the top five regional reasons mirrored the national top five 

(although not always in the exact same order). See table 2. The other three regions were more likely to have “asks questions 

about survey/does not understand survey” and “survey is voluntary” as part of their top five. 

Thankfully not a part of the top five categories are two overtly negative behaviors: “hangs up/slams door” and

“hostile/threatens interviewer.” While these behaviors were fairly rare, the Philadelphia and Chicago regions had a higher 

tendency toward these behaviors as did the Boston and New York regions10. We compared the noninterview rates of these 

regions to others and found New York and Philadelphia to rank number 1 and number 2 respectively (20.8 percent and 19.5

percent respectively) while the Chicago and Boston regions did not rank in the top five noninterview regions (9.6 and 12.1

percent, respectively). Similar to earlier findings, results of our simplistic examination of the relationship between

hostile/negative behavior and actual nonresponse is not so clear-cut. However, a multivariate analysis controlling for a host 

of other factors must be completed before valid inferences can be drawn. 

We next explored the breadth of concerns expressed during contacts. The CHI was designed as a “mark all that apply”

allowing interviewers to record as many different categories as they desired after each contact. But did they? Table 3

illustrates the frequency by which interviewers tended to record a single concern versus multiple concerns. The table is based

upon households for whom a category other than “no concerns” was selected during at least one contact. Among this

subgroup, interviewers selected only one concern category for close to 50 percent of households (46.6 percent)11. For 

another 21.7 percent, interviewers recorded two different categories during their contact(s) and for another 13.7 percent, 3

different categories were selected. As expected, the categories selected mirror the ‘top 5’ discussed from table 2. 

4.3 Patterns of concerns and number of contacts

We next looked at unique patterns of concerns/reluctance/behaviors for households across contacts. Excluding households

that did not exhibit any type of reluctance or only one kind of reluctance, over 800 different combinations of

concerns/reluctance/behaviors were recorded. Table 4a shows the top 14 patterns of reluctance observed or heard by 

interviewers for households in which two unique concerns or behaviors were encountered. Altogether these combinations 

explain 67 percent of this group of households. In just over 20 percent of these households the interviewer recorded the

8 The Census Bureau defines “urban” as housing units in urbanized areas (minimum of 50,000 persons) and in places of 

2,500 or more persons outside urban areas. Housing units not classified as urban constitute “rural”.

9 Approximately 77 percent of the CHI records analyzed reflect personal visits and 23 percent were telephone. 

10 Philadelphia and Chicago both had close to 5% of households with hang up/slamming door during at least one contact – 

Boston had close to 4%. The New York region had over 3% of households exhibiting hostile/threatening behavior toward

interviewers. 

11 Recall that the same category could have been recorded multiple times over different contacts. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

household was too busy and had encountered either scheduling difficulties or complaints the interview took too much time –

all time-related issues. Lack of interest in participating in the survey combined with being too busy – the household was not

interested in investing the time to conduct the survey – makes up the third highest percentage (9 percent); and, too busy

combined with the “other specify” entry round out the top four (6.9 percent). Time constraints do not appear to be an issue

among 15 percent of these households which displayed various combinations of the following: concerns about privacy, lack 

of understanding of the survey, lack of interest, citing the voluntary nature of the survey, and even anti-government concerns.

Table 4b focuses on the households that expressed three unique patterns of reluctance. Eight percent of these households

expressed all three kinds of time-related reluctance – too busy, interview takes too much time, and scheduling difficulties.

While time and/or schedules are important factors in most other combinations shown in this table, so too are the other 

dimensions of participatory issues, including those mentioned earlier, such as interest, voluntary nature, privacy, and antigovernment views. We also examined reluctance patterns among households that expressed four unique concerns. This

group represented approximately 8 percent of all households where concerns were recorded. Among this group, some of the

most common combinations included time-related excuses (too busy, interview takes too long, scheduling difficulties) 

coupled with either privacy concerns, disinterest in the survey, or the fact the survey was not mandatory (data not shown). In

summary, in households where multiple concerns were expressed, interviewers tended to record category combinations that 

primarily reflect respondent burden concerns with privacy concerns, anti-government concerns or the voluntary nature of the

survey cited as added dimensions of concern.

We next examined type of reluctance as contact with a household progressed. One hypothesis is that respondents may use 

delay tactics to avoid participation during early contacts as a way to politely refuse (a type of so-called soft refusal). If this is

so, do concerns become more crystallized and numerous with successive contacts? Or, conversely, do concerns expressed

early on (e.g., privacy concerns, does not understand the survey) get resolved by knowledgeable interviewers and thus, 

become less noticeable as the number of contacts increases? 

To explore this topic, we constructed a variable reflecting the contact number with each household. The analysis was limited

to households with between one and five contacts (which account for 99% of households where some contact was made).

Table 5 illustrates the distribution of selected reluctance/concerns/behaviors recorded across the first through fifth contact.

The distribution of concerns/reluctance/behaviors varied in some cases across contact number. As the number of contacts

increased, respondents became more likely to put off the interview with excuses of “too busy” or “not interested/doesn’t want 

to be bothered”. Interviewers also recorded an increase in the incidence of “scheduling difficulties” and “breaks 

appointments” as time and the number of contacts wore on. The latter categories are similar to those reported by Bates and 

Henly (2005) who found that attriters in a panel survey were more likely display “stalling” techniques in the wave prior to

leaving the panel. Interviewers also recorded an increase in the number of hang ups/door slams as number of contacts 

increased – likely reflecting a feeling of harassment or unwarranted intrusion with repeated visits. However, for some

categories, the trend was not necessarily upward as contacts increased. For example, privacy concerns and comments about 

the survey being voluntary remain fairly steady over multiple contacts. An obvious trend in Table 5 is that the frequency of

“no concerns” decreases as number of contacts increases. For sixty-three percent of first contacts, interviewers recorded “no

concerns” during the visit. This figure dropped to thirty-seven percent by the fifth contact obviously paralleling households’

increased willingness to voice reluctance or display reluctant behavior as interviewers made repeated visits. 

We did not find evidence to support Groves and Couper (1998) who report that as the number of contacts to a sample unit

increases, the number of questions and comments by both respondents and interviewers tends to decrease. Instead, the 

percentage of households that asked questions about the survey was small (3-5 percent) and constant over the first through

fifth contacts. Table 6 illustrates the average number of concerns expressed by contact number. During the first contact, the

average is less than one but increases slightly as the number of contacts grows. Grove and Heeringa (2005) hypothesize that 

if questions about a survey decrease over time, then nonresponse bias itself may also decline since all the different reasons for

refusing to participate become exhausted over time. A further investigation of sample units that had questions and concerns 

over time may shed more light onto this theory (but are not explored here).

4.4 Reluctance and refusal 

In the final section of the paper we focus more narrowly on a specific research question – namely, whether households that 

displayed concerns/reluctance/behaviors were more likely to end up as nonrespondents. Earlier we examined broad

relationships between concerns and response rates at the regional level, while here we shift to the household level. We began 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by subsetting households into three groups: those for whom interviewers recorded “no concerns” during all contacts; those 

for whom “no concerns” was recorded during at least one contact; and finally, those for whom interviewers recorded

concerns during all contacts. Logically, one might infer that the latter group requires more effort and persuasion on the part

of interviewers because during all contacts at least one type of reluctance/concern or tentative/negative behavior was noted.

Roughly 56 percent of households in the time period studied had no concerns at any time, while 17 percent had concerns

during some visits and 28 percent expressed concerns during all visits. 

Chart 3 illustrates the large difference in refusal rates between the three groups. Among households that never expressed

concerns, the final refusal rate was less than 1 percent. This compares to a 3.9 percent refusal rates among households that

expressed concerns during some, but not all contacts and a refusal rate of 13.6 percent for households that expressed concerns 

during all contacts. We next examined the relationship between the number of concerns recorded and refusal to participate. 

We examined households by the number of unique concerns that interviewers recorded over contacts with the households –

the category “no concerns” was excluded from the analysis. The resulting base is 4,993 households that expressed at least

one concern. Chart 4 suggests the relationship between volume of concerns and refusal to participate is linear and positive.

Households for whom interviewers recorded only one unique concern had a refusal rate of 5 percent compared to 20 percent 

for households expressing five different concerns. This provides some validation that the CHI screen worked as intended,

that is, as a mechanism to gauge respondent reluctance. While there may have been between-interviewer variation in the 

extent to which interviewers used the CHI and selected among the mark all that apply categories, it still appears to have

functioned as a predictor of participation on some level. 

Charts 5 and 6 illustrate the survey refusal rates among households that expressed a particular concern/reluctance/behavior 

during one or more contacts. Refusal rates were above average for some categories compared to others. For example, among 

households that indicated they were “not interested/do not bother”, the survey refusal rate was 26.2 percent while the overall 

refusal rate was only 4.5 percent. Likewise, those who expressed reluctance because the “survey is voluntary” refused to

participate in the survey at a rate of 23.6 percent. Other noticeably high categories were: those who broke appointments and 

put off interviewers (13.4 percent refusal) and those with privacy concerns and anti-government comments (10.8 percent and

20.6 percent refusal rates, respectively). 

Categories are continued in Chart 6 where households that were hostile/threatening or hung up or slammed the door all had 

above average refusal rates (40.0 and 38.8 percent refusal rates, respectively). Interestingly, households that did not

understand the survey or asked questions about the survey had refusal rates very close to average. In Groves and Heeringa

(2005), the authors cite evidence of an increased willingness to respond among households that asked questions about the

survey. This could result from the question-and-answer process successfully engaging the respondent and maintaining

interaction, a critical component to gaining cooperation according to Groves and McGonagle’s theory-guided interviewer 

training protocol (Groves and McGonagle, 2002). Or, more simply, interviewers may simply have been successful in

answering the respondent’s question or more fully explaining the purpose of the survey, thereby persuading them to

participate. Not surprisingly, households where no concerns were expressed had refusal rates well below average (1.0

percent refusal rate).

5. Conclusions 

In this paper we use survey process data from contact history records to quantify the reasons why some households are

reluctant to participate in the NHIS. We found that in households where contact was made, a large majority (72.3 percent) 

expressed “no concerns” about participating in the survey during at least one contact with a sample unit member. However, 

this lack of concern varied across regional offices and between urban and rural sample cases. In general, we discovered that

urban areas and regional offices containing large metropolitan areas were more likely to express concerns compared to rural

sample cases and regional offices containing smaller cities and towns. At the regional level, we did not detect a perfect

correlation between amount of concerns expressed and noninterview rates.

Several of the most popular concerns expressed were time-related, (too busy, interview takes too much time, and scheduling

difficulties). These likely reflect the perceived amount of response burden and opportunity costs involved in taking time to

participate. For busy people with little interest in the topic, participation is likely a hard sell. It would be interesting to 

analyze a recently available new time-use survey (the American Time Use Survey), to determine the amount of “free” time

available in today’s households and how it varies across different subgroups. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second most frequently-cited concern was privacy concerns. We wondered if these concerns have increased over the last

decade with the rising media coverage of identity theft and computer database security breaches. We consulted an article by 

DeMaio (1980) that examined reasons for refusals to the Current Population Survey in 1977. In that study, interviewers

recorded verbatim the reasons given at the time of refusal. The open-ended data were coded and the three refusal reasons

most often cited were: invasion of privacy (18 percent), voluntary nature of the survey (17 percent), and unfavorable past

experience as a survey respondent (9 percent). Interestingly, two of these three reasons also appeared in the NHIS “top ten”

reasons some 28 years later. Also of interest is that time-related reasons were not evident in the 1977 study (although the 

open-ended nature of that study may have contributed to this somewhat) .

12 Undoubtedly, time constraints are probably a 

bigger barrier today to getting a “foot in the door,”, compared to 1977. 

We discovered that some concerns tend to be expressed more often as the number of contacts increases. For example, 

interviewers were more likely to record that sample members were too busy, had scheduling difficulties, or had broken 

appointments as time wore on. We also discovered that interviewers tended to record only a few unique concerns among

households that had any – close to 50 percent recorded only one type of concern while another 22 percent had two. 

A preliminary examination of reluctance codes recorded in the CHI and final survey outcomes codes yielded evidence that 

the former can be used to predict the latter. Households that expressed concerns at every contact had a much higher refusal

rate than those that had none (a 13.6 percent refusal rate versus less than 1 percent, respectively). Likewise, households that 

expressed a variety of concerns had higher refusal rates compared to those who had only a few. And finally, some

concerns/behavior/reluctance categories appear more related to eventual refusal than others. For example, households that

cited the non-mandatory nature of the survey, expressed anti-government concerns, said they weren’t interested in the 

survey, and/or hung up on or slammed the door had refusal rates ranging anywhere from 20 to 40 percent, well above the

average of 4.5 percent. However, while we found excuses of “too busy” were the most frequently given reason not to

participate, the refusal rates for those providing this excuse were not that far above average (8.5 percent) indicating that this 

type of reluctance is often overcome. 

In conclusion, we are excited about the wealth of information the CHI data represents. For the first time, we are able to forge 

a union between process data, frame variables, and survey data for purposes of exploring refusals and potential nonresponse 

bias. For these reasons, the applications to survey methods research are large indeed. We acknowledge that this paper only

scratches the surface and look forward to additional analysis with additional surveys and a more multivariate perspective. 

One area for potential research is to examine whether certain concerns/reluctance/behaviors tend to correlate or cluster 

together – perhaps using factor analysis or item response theory. Such analysis would go beyond our examination of

reluctance category patterns to help identify whether there are underlying dimensions or constructs that help explain

reluctance to participate. If these factors can be isolated and codified, perhaps further training strategies can mitigate them.

We also plan to model the response process across different surveys and include sample frame variables, survey variables, 

CHI variables, and perhaps even Census tract variables as predictors. Ultimately, CHI data can be used to look for evidence

of response bias by comparing critical survey indicators of those who ever refused (for certain reasons) with those who never

refused. In panel surveys, CHI data can be used to better equip interviewer staff with the information necessary to target, and 

convert, likely attriters. CHI data will continue to be utilized as a tool to prioritize potential refusals, identify candidates for 

refusal conversion, and better understand the impact that nonresponse has on official survey estimates. 

Acknowledgements: The authors wish to thank the NHIS field interviewers for collecting the CHI data and Xaiodong Guan

for creating and processing the CHI and NHIS datasets. They also express thanks to Anna Sheveland for coding and 

analyzing the open-ended responses at the reluctance screen. Finally, thanks to Rick Bitzer, Kathy Creighton, Cheryl

Landman, and Dawn Nelson for review and comments on an earlier version of this paper.

6. References 

Bates, N. and Henly, M. (2005). “Use of Contact History Records to Study Attrition in a Personal Visit Longitudinal 

Survey.” Internal U.S. Census Bureau report, Demographic Surveys Division, January 28, 2005. 

12 In the CPS study, the author notes that over half of the open-ended codes fell into an “other” category but that no one

“other” reason was selected more than 11 percent of the time. The article does not detail what the “other” categories were. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bizter, R. (2005). “Table 3. Profile of Field Representatives By Survey and Type of Field Representative.” Internal U.S.

Census Bureau communication from Richard L. Bitzer, Assistant Division Chief, Field Division, U.S. Census Bureau. 

DeMaio, T. (1980). “Refusals: Who, Where and Why.” Public Opinion Quarterly 44:223-233. 

Groves, R. M. and Heeringa, S. (2004). “Responsive Design for Household Surveys: Tools for Actively Controlling Survey

Nonresponse and Costs.” Economic and Social Research Council website, UK. http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/

methods/events/attrition/. 

Groves, R. M., Presser, S., and Dipko, S. (2004). “The Role of Topic Interest in Survey Participation Decision.” Public

Opinion Quarterly 68:2-31.

Groves, R. M. and McGonagle, K. (2001). “A Theory-Guided Interviewer Training Protocol Regarding Survey

Participation.” Journal of Official Statistics 17: 249-266. 

Groves, R. M., Singer, E., and Corning, A. (2000). “Leverage-Saliency Theory of Survey Participation.” Public Opinion 

Quarterly 64: 299-308. 

Groves, R. M. and Couper, M. (1998). Nonresponse in Household Interview Surveys. New York: Wiley.

Groves, R.M, Caldini, R. B., and Couper, M. P. (1992). “Understanding the Decision to Participate in a Survey.” Public 

Opinion Quarterly 56: 475-495. 

Hembroff, L., Rusz, D., Rafferty, A., McGee, H. and Ehrlich, N. (2005). “The Cost-Effectiveness of Alternative Advance

Mailings in a Telephone Survey.” Public Opinion Quarterly, 69: 232-245. 

Singer, E., Van Hoewyk, J., and Maher, M. (2000). “Experiments with Incentives in Telephone Surveys.” Public Opinion 

Quarterly 64:171-188.

Trussel, N. and Lavrakas, P. (2004). “The Influence of Incremental Increases in Token Cash Incentives on Mail Survey

Response: Is There an Optimal Amount?” Public Opinion Quarterly 68:349-367. 

U.S. Census Bureau (2004). “Noninterview Rates for Selected Major Demographic Household Surveys.” U.S. Census Bureau

memorandum from Chester E. Bowie, Chief Demographic Surveys Division. 
Figure 1. 

Concerns/Behavior/Reluctance screen from the Contact History Instrument (CHI) 

Categories 16-21 for 

panel/longitudinal surveys 
 

 

 

 

Chart 1. Percent of Households with at least one contact with 'No Concerns' by

Regional Office (response rates in parenthesis)

NationalRR=(87%)

NewYork (79%)

Chicago RR=(90%)

Atlanta RR=(93%)

Seattle RR=(84%)

Dallas RR=(85%)

Detroit RR=(90%)

Boston RR=(88%)

L A RR=(85%

DenverRR=(90%)

PhillyRR=(81%)

KC RR=(92%)

Charlotte RR=(88%)

0%

72.3%

53.9%

65.7%

68.4%

69.7%

70.6%

70.7%

71.5%

73.4%

78.7%

79.4%

79.5%

81.5%

20% 40% 60% 80%

No Concerns

 

 

 

 

- - = 

Chart 2. 2005 NHIS CHI Data* – Percent of Households Displaying

Concern/Reluctance/Behavior

(recorded at 1 more or contact )

Other hhd members say not to

Hostile/Threatening 72.3% had “no concerns” at

Family issues 1 or more contact

Survey content does not apply

Talk only to specific hhd member

Breaks appt.

Hang-up/Slam door

Anti-gov't comments

Asks questions/Doesn't understand

Survey is voluntary

Scheduling difficulties

Other

Interview takes too much time

Not interested/Don't bother

Privacy Concerns

Too busy

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

*QTR1 Weeks 10 13 + QTR2 Weeks 1 6 N 11,283 households
 

 

Table 1. Concerns/Reluctance/Behavior by Urban vs. Rural 

Type of Reluctance Total 

% 

Urban 

% 

Rural 

% 

2

x d.f. p 

No concerns 72.3 70.2 79.4 84.5 1 <.001 

Too busy 21.1 22.9 15.0 76.0 1 <.001 

Privacy concerns 12.6 13.6 9.3 34.1 1 <.001 

Not interested/Does not want to be bothered 12.1 13.4 8.0 53.7 1 <.001 

Interview takes too much time 9.5 10.2 7.2 22.1 1 <.001 

Other specify 8.5 8.9 7.0 9.3 1 <.01 

Scheduling difficulties 7.3 7.8 5.7 12.1 1 <.001 

Survey is voluntary 6.1 6.6 4.7 11.5 1 <.001 

Does not understand survey/ Ask questions about the survey 5.4 5.6 4.8 2.3 1 0.13 

Anti-government concerns 3.7 3.8 3.2 2.4 1 0.12 

Hang-up/slams door on FR 2.7 2.7 2.6 .07 1 0.80 

Breaks appointments (puts off FR indefinitely) 2.5 2.8 1.5 15.1 1 <.001 

Talk only to specific household member 1.4 1.6 0.7 11.4 1 <.001 

Survey content does not apply 1.4 1.5 1.1 1.9 1 0.17 

Family issues 1.3 1.4 1.0 2.8 1 0.09 

Hostile or threatens FR 1.2 1.3 1.0 1.6 1 0.21 

Other household members tell respondent not to participate 1.2 1.3 1.0 1.5 1 0.22 

Total N 11283 8685 2598 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 2. 

Concerns/Reluctance/Behavior by Regional Office 

New

Total Boston York Philly Detroit Chicago KC Seattle Charlotte Atlanta Dallas Denver L A X2

 d.f. p 

Too busy 21.1% 22.6% 32.9% 17.1% 19.0% 24.9% 17.6% 21.9% 15.00% 20.8% 19.2% 20.1% 26.3% 121.08 11 <.0001

Privacy concerns 12.6% 14.2% 16.3% 10.7% 17.2% 13.6% 8.9% 16.5% 7.0% 14.5% 13.8% 9.7% 10.9% 99.33 11 <.0001

Not interested/Don't bother 12.1% 13.6% 22.7% 12.3% 11.9% 16.1% 9.7% 12.6% 7.2% 11.6% 11.9% 10.1% 10.7% 115.07 11 <.0001

Interview takes too much time 9.5% 8.4% 13.4% 9.2% 12.0% 14.3% 7.4% 8.8% 6.3% 11.8% 6.8% 9.8% 8.3% 82.96 11 <.0001

Other reasons 8.5% 8.5% 16.1% 10.4% 6.0% 11.4% 4.3% 9.6% 8.3% 10.6% 5.6% 7.7% 6.1% 114.09 11 <.0001

Scheduling difficulties 7.3% 7.9% 8.6% 8.8% 6.8% 10.5% 6.2% 8.7% 6.3% 7.1% 4.4% 7.9% 5.8% 44.07 11 <.0001

Survey is voluntary 6.1% 6.1% 9.2% 5.4% 7.2% 9.8% 4.5% 7.7% 3.9% 5.5% 5.7% 4.3% 5.6% 61.15 11 <.0001

Asks questions/doesn't understand 5.4% 3.9% 5.2% 6.7% 8.9% 8.3% 6.7% 5.7% 2.4% 7.0% 5.0% 2.9% 3.0% 93.04 11 <.0001

Anti-gov't comments 3.7% 3.8% 5.0% 1.9% 4.1% 5.8% 2.2% 5.3% 2.4% 5.2% 3.0% 2.3% 2.7% 58.20 11 <.0001

Hangs up/slams door 2.7% 3.7% 3.2% 4.8% 3.0% 4.8% 2.2% 1.4% 1.6% 2.1% 2.5% 2.5% 1.3% 57.67 11 <.0001

Breaks appt's -puts off FR indefinitely 2.5% 2.0% 3.9% 2.9% 2.1% 4.5% 1.9% 3.6% 1.1% 2.1% 2.0% 3.0% 1.9% 41.91 11 <.0001

Talk only to a certain HHD member 1.4% 1.0% 3.0% 1.4% 0.8% 1.7% 1.3% 1.8% 1.7% 1.0% 1.0% 1.3% 1.6% 19.42 11 <.0001

Survey contents does not apply 1.4% 1.4% 3.9% 1.4% 1.4% 1.5% 1.6% 1.8% 0.5% 0.7% 0.9% 0.6% 2.2% 48.99 11 <.0001

Family issues 1.3% 1.1% 2.5% 1.4% 0.8% 2.0% 0.7% 1.3% 1.6% 1.2% 1.2% 1.0% 1.4% 17.26 11 <.0001

Hostile/threatens Interviewer 1.2% 1.5% 3.4% 1.8% 1.6% 1.4% 0.8% 0.7% 0.9% 1.7% 0.5% 1.4% 0.5% 42.43 11 <.0001

Other members say not to participate 1.2% 1.5% 2.4% 1.0% 0.7% 2.0% 0.8% 1.1% 1.4% 1.6% 0.8% 1.2% 0.7% 21.33 11 <.0001

Total N 11283 810 596 773 764 1022 893 1011 1140 1239 1171 836 1028
 

 

Table 3. 

Frequency of Selected Concerns/Reluctance/Behaviors

by Number of Concerns Selected 

(Base: 4,993 households that expressed concerns) 

Number of Concerns % of Households Most Freq. Selected Category 

1 46.6% Too busy (33%) 

2 21.7% Too busy (51%) 

Privacy concerns (26%) 

3 13.7% Too busy (57%) 

Not interested/don’t bother (41%) 

Privacy concerns (38%) 

4 8.3% Too busy (70%) 

Not interested/don’t bother (56%) 

Privacy concerns (51%) 

Interview takes too much time (40%) 

5+ 10.0% Too busy (80%) 

Not interested/don’t bother (79%) 

Privacy concerns (70%) 

Interview takes too much time(60%) 

Survey is voluntary (57%) 

Total 100% 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 4a. Patterns of Concern/Reluctance/Behavior Among Households Expressing 

Two Unique Types of Reluctance Across Contacts 

Patterns of Reluctance Percent Number

Too busy Scheduling difficulties 10.9 118 

Too busy Interview takes too much time 9.9 107 

Too busy Not interested 9.0 97 

Too busy Other specify 6.9 74 

Too busy Privacy concerns 4.1 44 

Privacy concerns Does not understand survey 4.1 44 

Interview takes too much time Privacy concerns 3.8 41 

Not interested Privacy concerns 3.3 36 

Not interested Survey is voluntary 3.0 32 

Too busy Does not understand survey 3.0 32 

Does not understand survey Other specify 2.5 27 

Survey is voluntary Privacy concerns 2.4 26 

Privacy concerns Other specify 2.2 24 

Privacy concerns Anti-government concerns 2.2 24 

Subtotal 67.3 726 

Total 100 1081 

Table 4b. Patterns of Concern/Reluctance/Behavior Among Households Expressing 

Three Unique Types of Reluctance Across Contacts 

Patterns of Reluctance Percent Number

Too busy Interview takes too much time Scheduling difficulties 8.2 56

Not interested Too busy Interview takes too much time 5.6 38

Not interested Too busy Survey is voluntary 3.1 21

Too busy Scheduling difficulties Other specify 2.8 19

Too busy Interview takes too much time Privacy concerns 2.6 18

Not interested Privacy concerns Anti-government concerns 2.6 18

Not interested Survey is voluntary Privacy concerns 2.6 18

Not interested Too busy Privacy concerns 2.6 18

Too busy Scheduling difficulties Privacy concerns 2.5 17

Not interested Too busy Other specify 2.2 15

Too busy Privacy concerns Anti-government concerns 2.1 14

Too busy Breaks appointments Scheduling difficulties 2.1 14

Subtotal 39.0 266

Total 100 682
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 5. Percent Expressing Certain Concerns at Contacts 1 -5 

Contact Number 

Concern/Reluctance/Behavior 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

No concerns 63% 49% 40% 38% 37% 

Too busy 15% 21% 23% 25% 24% 

Privacy concerns 8% 11% 12% 11% 11% 

Not interested/don’t bother 8% 12% 15% 14% 15% 

Other (specify write-in) 5% 7% 8% 8% 7% 

Scheduling difficulties 4% 7% 11% 12% 11% 

Survey is voluntary 4% 6% 7% 7% 2% 

Asks Questions/doesn’t understand 3% 4% 5% 4% 3% 

Anti-gov’t comments 2% 3% 3% 4% 3% 

Hangs-up/slams door 1% 3% 4% 5% 7% 

Breaks appointments/puts off FR 1% 2% 5% 7% 8% 

Talk only to specific member 1% 2% 2% 1% 3% 

Survey contents does not apply 1% 1% 1% 1% 0% 

Family issues 1% 1% 2% 1% 2% 

Hostile/threatening 1% 1% 2% 2% 2% 

Other household members say not to 1% 1% 1% 1% 3% 

Total N (18, 308) 11,283 4,311 1,675 646 239 

Table 6. Number of Concerns Expressed at Contacts 1-5 

Contact Number 

1

st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

Mean 0.6 0.9 1.1 1.1 1.1 

Median 0.0 0.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 

Total N (18,308) 11,283 4,311 1675 646 239 
 

 

 

 

Chart 3. 2005 NHIS - Percent Refusing Survey by

Concerns Expressed on Contacts 

(base=11,283 households)

0%

13.6%

4%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

% Refusing Survey

No concerns at any contact

Concerns on at least 1 contact

Concerns at all contacts

Chart 4. 2005 NHIS - Percent Refusing Survey by Number of

Unique Concerns Expressed

(base=4,993 households)

5%

10%

14%

18%

20%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

1 2 3 4 5

Number of Concerns
Chart 5. 2005 NHIS - Percent Refusing Survey by Concerns / 

Reluctance/ Behavior

=

Percent Refusing

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

Average Refusal Rate 

4.5%

Yes

No

Not Interested / Too Busy Interview Takes Breaks Appts Scheduling Survey is Privacy Concerns Anti-Government

Don't Bother Too Long Difficulties Voluntary

 

 

Chart 6. 2005 NHIS - Percent Refusing Survey by Concerns / 

Reluctance / Behavior (cont.)

 

=

Percent Refusing

45%

40%

35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%

Average Refusal Rate 

4.5%

Yes

No

Asks Questions / Survey Doesn't Hang-up / Hostile Other HH Talk Only to Family Issues Other No Concerns

Doesn’t Apply Slammed Door Members Say Certain HH

Understand Not To Member