‘Bringing it All Back Home’ - Using RDD Telephone Methods for Large-scale Social Policy and Opinion Research in the UK

Abstract

Despite the extent of telephone ownership in the UK rising to levels comparable with those in the USA the use of telephone methods here, although growing, remains at a consistently and significantly lower level, even where the use of such methods might solve specific research problems. The major reason for this is the hitherto presumed inability to apply two stage Random Digit Dialling (Mitofsky-Waksberg) sampling methods. The authors review the position in the UK and the deficiencies of telephone sampling methods used there hitherto. They present proposals for a new method of implementing RDD in the UK and thus true probability sampling for telephone methods. In addition they present data from a number of surveys carried out to test the proposed methods, in particular a survey of health related behaviour and beliefs among adults aged 16-74 in England and a number of opinion polls. They also review briefly other polls carried out during the 1997 General Election campaign. They review the effectiveness of the proposed method and the possible future for telephone surveys in the UK.