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Table 1 Call disposition descriptions

From: Estimation of bed net coverage indicators in Tanzania using mobile phone surveys: a comparison of sampling approaches

Disposition

Description

Complete

Complete interview designations required that participants answer the questions necessary for calculation of the bed net indicators of interest as well as those for poststratification adjustment (i.e., bicycle, TV, and radio ownership)

Partial

Partial interview designations only required that participants answer the questions necessary for calculation of the bed net indicators of interest, but not those used for poststratification adjustment

Breakoff

Breakoff interview designations denote those interviews in which a participant started answering questions, but ultimately broke off the call before a designation of complete or partial could be established

Refusal

Refusals were characterized by respondents who indicated that they were not interested in participating in the survey

Non-contact

Non-contact interviews are those in which the participant could not be reached (no answer or non-assigned phone number)

Other

If an interview was designated as anything other than complete, partial, breakoff, or refusal, it was dispositioned as ‘other’. In most instances, a designation of ‘other’ resulted from skipped questions necessary for a disposition of complete/partial, but in which the respondent finished the survey

Ineligible*

Ineligible respondents are those who were under the age of 18 years or those whose call was ended as the sample quota had been reached for their region

Finished*

Finished interviews was used as an internal program designation and was used to track progress towards sample size goals. This would include calls dispositioned as complete, partial, and other so long as the participant reached the end of the survey. As such, while this designation was used to track progress towards sample size goals, this category of interviews is not meaningful from an analytic perspective

  1. *Not an official AAPOR disposition category: the AAPOR provides guidance on dispositioning calls but encourages researchers to establish a priori definitions of what constitutes a complete vs. a partial interview and what distinguishes a partial interview from a break-off. Otherwise, prescribed equations are provided for calculating rates (i.e., response, cooperation, refusal, and contact rates) using call dispositions. Note that regardless of call disposition status, the RBM-MERG bed net coverage indicators were calculated if the requisite data elements were available