Survey Methodology

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Survey Methodology

• EPID-626
• Lecture 1

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What is a survey?

• A survey is a system for collecting information
  to describe, compare, or explain knowledge,
  attitudes, and behavior. (Fink, 1995)

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What can surveys reasonably assess?
Megan O'Brien Rothman, 1998, p451

• Behaviors associated with disease
• Personal attributes that affect disease risk
• Knowledge/attitudes that influence health
  behaviors
• Use of health services
• Self-reported disease occurrence (Rothman,
  1998)

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What may be unreasonable for survey?

• Very personal information
• Information about socially undesirable behavior
• Intricate details of past events
• Complex clinical information

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Options for topics that may be unreasonable for
survey

• Dont use a survey
• Example examine medical records instead
• Use survey but use other methods to verify some
  information
• Example use a survey to measure possible cancer
  risk factors and ask about history of cancer.
  Examine medical records to verify reported
  information about history of cancer

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• Compensate for potential problems in the survey
  design
• Example make the survey anonymous if asking for
  very personal information or about socially
  undesirable behavior
• Use a survey, but recognize the limitations of
  the results
• Example present prevalence rate, but comment
  that it is likely to underestimate the true
  prevalence

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• Sponsoring a special-purpose survey data
  collection is a rather expensive solution to an
  information problem. Before launching such an
  effort, one should explore thoroughly the
  potential for gathering the same information from
  existing records or from other sources.
  (Fowler, 1995)

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Alternatives to surveys

• May be necessary
• biologic specimens, medical testing
• May be more feasible
• existing data sources
• Multiple methods may be used together

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Advantages of surveys

• You can
• obtain standardized measurements
• use probability sampling
• ensure that all the data needed for a given
  analysis can be obtained

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Your research question

• Is the question
• relevant?
• important?
• timely?
• Always begin with a literature review
• Formulate a hypothesis
• Can you test the hypothesis with a survey?

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Feasibility

• Can you obtain the necessary information to
  answer the research question?
• Can you get the information?
• Will the data be accurate?
• How much will it cost (staff, other resources)?
• How long will it take?
• Is your study ethical?

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Ready to start? Not even close!!

• Think about your research endpoint
• What kind of data do you need?
• How will you collect the data?
• Who will you collect data from?

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Wanted Project Coordinator

• Assisting the department director in carrying out
  applied survey research, your duties will
  include formulating study designs and sampling
  frames ..developing instruments supervising
  data collection, entry, and manipulation
  application of descriptive and inferential
  statistics interpreting results and preparing
  reports.
  (Fink, 1995)

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Survey To-Do List

• Set objectives for information collection
• Design research
• Prepare a reliable and valid data collection
  instrument
• Analyze data
• Report the results
  (Fink, 1995)

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Checklist for a great survey

• Specific objectives
• Straightforward questions
• Sound research design
• Sound choice of population or sample
• Reliable and valid survey instrument
• Appropriate analysis
• Accurate reporting of survey results
• Reasonable resources
  (Fink, 1995)