Use of Admail and a geographic information system to send surveys to target populations.

INTRODUCTION: This paper briefly describes the use of Canada Post Unaddressed Admail and a geographic information system (GIS) for survey distribution to a specific target population in a large, sparsely populated geographic area, and the effectiveness of this approach.

METHODS: Surveys were sent as Unaddressed Admail via Canada Post to a target population of people living within 5 km of a wind turbine in southwestern Ontario.

RESULTS: The overall response rate from 8 wind farms (in 8 counties) was 8.1%.

CONCLUSION: This approach has the potential to save time and money, but low response rates are common, distribution is not precise and there is potential for selection bias. Despite these flaws, Unaddressed Admail is worth consideration for delivery of information, study-recruitment materials and surveys to rural, remote and specific target populations.