Interviewer Morale, Field Effort and Field Efficiency in the National Health Interview Survey

Oregon Convention Center 

To examine the association of interviewer morale with field effort and efficiency, the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) conducted an evaluation of a September to December of 2023 NHIS interviewer support initiative. NHIS, the nation's gold standard nationally representative household health survey, is conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, with data collected by U.S. Census Bureau Field Representatives (FRs). After describing the initiative, which facilitated peer and supervisor encouragement and instrumental support for NHIS FRs in completing their NHIS cases, this paper presents the methods and results of the evaluation. This evaluation consisted of a 2024 NHIS FR survey on FR perspectives on the initiative's benefits, and an analysis of 2022-2024 NHIS paradata examining the difference in differences across years in the mean number of days to first contact; and mean number of in-person, phone, and total contact attempts to first contact, per case and per completed case. Differences in these measures between August 2023 and January 2024 (before and after the initiative), are compared with differences in these measures between August 2022 and January 2023.

Interviewer support

Interviewer morale

CAPI survey

Field effort

Field efficiency 

Survey Research Methods Section