At the beginning of the year I received a letter from the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) stating it's conducting a national study on health-related issues and my address was randomly selected along with more than 200,000 others. The letter said Research Triangle Institute (RTI) is contracted to conduct the study and a representative will visit me.
The letter provided the interviewer's name and stated she'd have an identification badge. All members of my household (me) would be asked a few questions and if qualified, I'd be asked to complete a survey and be compensated $30.
With all the scams going around I wasn't sure if this was legit. I Googled the phone number provided (800-848-4079) and found it did belong to Research Triangle Institute. I also found some message boards where users posted they didn't think it sounded legit and kind of scammy.
I forgot about it until last night, around 6:30 the doorbell rang. It was the woman mentioned in the letter. She had an identification badge and asked me a few questions in which she punched the answers into her magic hand-held device. Questions were basic - my age, ethnicity and whether I lived here full-time.
Turns out the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health needed more 40-year-old, Caucasian women so I was selected to take the hour-long survey and I was chosen to represent about 4,500 others in the United States. Whoa! The responsibility!
The interviewer went out to her car and returned with a computer and box of papers. We set up shop on my dining room table where she asked me questions and I completed questions on the computer. She was professional and fun and she assured me responses are kept confidential. She never asked to leave the dining area so I know she wasn't casing my place.
Some of the results are used to determine what types of medical services are needed in specific communities so just like the U.S. Census, participating is important.
I was never once asked for my name or social security number and I received $30 cash so I'm pretty confident this is not a scam. If it was a man conducting the interviewing not sure if I would have let him in.
Have you been contacted and asked to participate in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health? Results of this study will be released in 2011 - can't wait!
Comments
Anon - I think they look all different age-ranges. Could be your lucky day! :)
https://nsduhweb.rti.org/RespWeb/project_description.html
Here's a link I found on the subject. Looks legit.
RTI has conducted the study since 1988. RTI is a large non-profit research organization located in North Carolina. It is associated with Duke University, University of North Carolina, and North Carolina State. RTI’s mission is ” to improve the human condition”. They do that thru conducting many kinds of research, including the NSDUH, which is considered social science research. RTI’s research resulted in the development of Taxol, which is a cancer treatment drug that has saved hundreds of thousands of lives. The scope of their research encompasses many different things, all aimed at improving the quality of life for human beings. RTI is a world renowned, widely recognized, and well-respected research organization.
When an address is selected to participate, a Field Interviewer visits said selected dwelling unit and conducts what is referred to as a short screening process. It consists of asking a few non-invasive demograpghical questions about the makeup of the household. From there, either zero, one, or two people may be selected to conduct a longer interview. Sometimes no one from a household is selected. The selection is based on the demographics needed in that particular area/state at that given time. Since it is a scientific study, adults over the age of 18 years old represent 4,500 other persons in the U.S. That are similar to the Interviewee. Persons under the age of 18 years of age (no Interviews are conducted with minors without the expressed permission of the minor’s parent or guardian) represent 1,000 persons similar to the minor Interviewee. At most, only two household members may be selected. In many instances, no one is selected to participate. The study itself is totally confidential under CIPSEA and there has never been a breach of that confidentiality since the start of the study in 1971. Every household has to be given the right to participate, so address listers list every address within a segment that is selected for a particular quarter. Sometimes the house or apartment may be vacant. That is unknown until the Field Interviewer attempts to make contact with the household. If a person chooses to participate in the study, their name and address are never associated with their answers. Two seperate pieces of equipment are used to (1) locate the address and do the screening, and then (2) conduct the interview.
If a person is selected to participate in the study and they agree to be interviewed, the interview itself asks their thoughts, knowledge, and attitudes of tobacco products, alcohol, illicit and non-illicit drugs, mental health and other health issues. Their answers are compiled as statistics that allow public policymakers to make informed decisions in regards to prevention, education, and treatment programs within communities. TheSubstance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) provides many grants across the United States for prevention, education, and treatment programs. You canaccess the SAMSHA website on-line and see where grants have been allocated in your partiucular state. In addition to SAMSHA, many other government, public, private, and eductional organizations use the statistics from this important study. If you have younger children, they have probably had the D.A.R.E. Program within their schools. Programs such as this use statistics gathered from this important study.
If you read description of report methods on SAMHSA website it appears that an interviewer gets an address and then determines whether there are any residents in their target age range for the survey.
Found posting on samhsa website that gave example of letter, including that participants would be paid $30.
http://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUHmrbShowcards2014.pdf