Follow-up Survey of Panel Attriters Investigating Reasons for Attrition and Willingness to Rejoin: The Case of the FReDA Panel

This study examined the feasibility of conducting a follow-up survey of panel attriters as a panel maintenance measure to investigate respondents’ reasons for attrition, assessing their willingness to rejoin, and updating their addresses. We surveyed FReDA panelists who had not participated in two consecutive subwaves and were excluded from the panel. The response rate for the follow-up survey was 7.1%. The most common reasons for non-participation in previous FReDA subwaves were time-related. Of the follow-up survey participants, 84.1% agreed to be re-contacted for the upcoming subwave. These respondents had promising participation rates of 67.4% and 53.8% in the two subsequent FReDA subwaves. Given the ease of conducting a follow-up survey online and its benefits in gaining valuable insights into the reasons for (temporary) attrition, re-engaging attriters, and updating their addresses, we consider it a valuable panel maintenance measure.