Objective: To describe the first phase of a multi-phase study exploring the possibility of conducting telephone dietary intake interviewing in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong in urban China in 2002.
Methods: Three hundred healthy urban Chinese women aged 20 to 49years were sampled by random telephone screening interviews.
Results: Examination of the factors associated with their responses to the telephone screening showed that the completion rates differed by day of the week and time of the day. The completion rates were higher onWednesday and Thursday than other weekdays, and higher on Sunday than Saturday at the weekend. There was a trend for the completion rates to peak from 18 :00 to 21:30 during weekday evenings and between 11:00 and 12:00 AM and 19:00 and 20:00 PM during weekends. There was no significant interviewer difference in the completion rates except for one interviewer in Hong Kong, indicating that interviewer performance did not influence completion rates. Of all numbers dialed, 25% of the responding persons refused, with almost all (94.3%) occurring at or near the beginning of the screening interviews, either before or at invitation. Key reasons for refusal included "hung up without any interaction" (35.1%), "not available to participate" (28.6%) or "not interested in survey" (19.0%). Most of the refusals were firm and not possible to reverse.