Evaluating non-responders of a survey in the Swedish fracture register: no indication of different functional result

The Swedish Fracture Register (SFR) currently contains information on more than 190,000 fractures. Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) are used for monitoring functional results after fracture treatment. One weakness, as in many surveys, is a low response rate. The aim of the current study was to examine if non-responders of a survey in the SFR differ in PROMs scores, how age and gender influence the response rate and reasons for not responding.

Patients with fractures of radius, ulna or humerus between June and August 2013 and registered in the SFR were included in the study. The non-responders to both the pre-injury and the 1-year survey were contacted by phone and reminded to reply. A comparison of the results of both EQ-5D and Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment (SMFA) could be made between the responders after a phone reminder and the initial responders. The response rate for the register as a whole was extracted in order to identify how age and gender affect the response rate.

Three hundred seventeen of the patients included in the study responded initially. After phone reminder another 94 patients answered the pre-injury survey. Two hundred sixty eight responded initially to the 1-year follow-up survey and 42 after phone reminder. No significant difference was identified in the score of the pre-injury survey between initial responders and responders after phone reminder neither in the EQ-5D nor in the Short Musculoskeletal Function Assessment (SMFA). Regarding the 1-year survey, responders after a phone reminder reported a significantly better outcome in crude data of SMFA score. This difference disappeared after controlling for confounding factors through case control matching. The highest response rate to PROMs in the SFR was among females in the age range 60–69 years.

This study indicates that both in the preinjury survey as well as in the 1-year survey the non-responders in the SFR report similar function compared to the initial responders. Age and gender of patients affect the response rate of the survey which needs to be taken into consideration in analysis of data from the SFR.