(P132) COMPARING RESPONSE RATES FOR DAILY ECOLOGICAL MOMENTARY ASSESSMENT BY LEVEL OF MONETARY COMPENSATION AMONG URBAN SEXUAL MINORITY MEN

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

4:15 PM - 5:15 PM EST

Primary Author(s)

Brittany Liebhard, MPH (she/her/hers)

PhD Student
College of Public Health, The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio, United States

Co-Author(s)(s)

Abigail Norris Turner, PhD (she/her/hers)

Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty
The Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio, United States
WM

William C. Miller, MD, MPH, PhD

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
JR

JaNelle Ricks, DrPH

Assistant Professor
College of Public Health, Ohio State University
Columbus, Ohio, United States
Morgan Spahnie, MPH

Operations Manager
Center for HOPES, The Ohio State University, United States

Background:
Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) can measure behaviors related to STI transmission risk in near real-time. However, the impact of participant compensation on response rates for daily EMA surveys is unclear. In preparation for a prospective network study of urban sexual minority men (SMM), we compared response rates between two groups that received different per-survey compensation.

Methods:
We enrolled 40 cisgender SMM in a 4-week study between December 2018 and July 2019. Participants were assigned to one of two groups: higher compensation (Group A, n=20) and lower compensation (Group B, n=20). We asked participants to respond to study-initiated (push notification) surveys in a smartphone application twice weekly, and to submit self-initiated surveys once daily during the remaining 5 days per week. For each completed study-initiated survey, Group A received $5 and Group B received $3. For each day they completed a self-initiated survey, Group A received $3 during weeks 1-2, and was not paid during weeks 3-4. Group B was not paid for self-initiated surveys. We used Wilcoxon rank sum tests to analyze response rates by compensation group for each survey type, and Wilcoxon signed rank tests to analyze response rates between weeks 1-2 and weeks 3-4 for self-initiated surveys by compensation group.

Results:
Group A participants completed somewhat fewer study-initiated surveys than Group B, but the difference was not significant (Group A median=6 vs. Group B median=7.5, p=0.13). Group A (compensated) completed more self-initiated surveys than Group B (not compensated) (Group A median=14 vs. Group B median=5.5, p<0.01). When compensation was removed, Group A completed fewer self-initiated surveys (weeks 1-2 median=8 vs. weeks 3-4 median=6.5, p=0.02).

Conclusion:
Among this sample of SMM, response rates to daily EMA surveys were higher when participants received compensation. However, the amount of compensation received per survey appeared to be less important.