Collecting health research data: comparing mobile phone-assisted personal interviewing to paper-and-pen data collection
SOURCE: Field Methods
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2014
TITLE AUTHOR(S): A.C.Van Heerden, S.A.Norris, S.M.Tollman, L.M.Richter
KEYWORDS: DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY, HEALTH SECTOR, RESEARCH
DEPARTMENT: Public Health, Societies and Belonging (HSC)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 8028
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/2688
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/2688
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2014
TITLE AUTHOR(S): A.C.Van Heerden, S.A.Norris, S.M.Tollman, L.M.Richter
KEYWORDS: DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY, HEALTH SECTOR, RESEARCH
DEPARTMENT: Public Health, Societies and Belonging (HSC)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 8028
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/2688
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/2688
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
Mobile phone-assisted personal interviewing (MPAPI) is becoming a more widely used technique to collect survey data. Not having a hard copy paper document to return to when cleaning data raises the question of how data error rates compare with traditional paper surveys and at what cost. One hundred health research interviewers trained to use traditional pen-and paper (PAP) survey methodology were recruited and randomly assigned to either a PAP or an MPAPI group. After receiving training on the survey instrument, each of the 100 interviewers conducted interviews with the same five interviewees, for a total of 500 interviews. Costs associated with the two survey methods were calculated. Very low error rates were achieved in both PAP and MPAPI, with a total of 381 data errors identified in 21,500 survey items. Findings suggest that experienced, well-trained interviewers using a short, well-constructed survey can produce very low error rates, independent of survey mode and that the benefits of MPAPI would be magnified as the size and complexity of the study increases.-
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