Random Digit Dialing: A Sampling Technique for Telephone Surveys

This paper describes an investigation into the efficiency ofa random-digit-dialed telephone survey for the collection ofhealth attitude information. Data come from a survey of adultsin Oakland County, Michigan, conducted during the 1976–77swine influenza immunization campaign. Information is presentedon the results of dialing to sample telephone numbers, the frequencyof nonworking numbers within the sample, problems with numbersthat were never answered, and precision of sample estimates.In addition, some rough estimates of cost are presented andcompared to survey costs reported in other studies. Findingssuggest that random digit dialing is an efficient survey method,both in terms of cost in implementation and sampling precision.