A Brief Comment About Sample Size and Response Rates for Clinical Research: A Multi-site Case Example

During the past few decades, response rates have declined across social science research. Although some researchers are willing to accept this state of affairs, in this comment, we argue that low response rates weaken the value of social science research, thereby jeopardizing science research and associated knowledge. We describe the case of a Hong Kong-based multi-site study of addiction treatment seekers to examine approaches to stimulating clinical research and response rates. For this case of addiction treatment seekers, the overall response rate was acceptable (69.7%), despite variation among the three study sites. We discuss factors that likely contributed to this response rate variation to illustrate practical steps that investigators can undertake to improve response rates instead of capitulating to the status quo.