Development and administration of
questionnaire
Prof. Dr. Sharmin Chowdhury
One Health Institute
Khulshi, Chittagong-4202, Bangladesh
E-mail: [email protected]
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The survey questionnaire
Virtually all surveys make use of questionnaires in
order to
collect part of the data
the rest being obtained in the form of various
measurements
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What is questionnaire?
A device to
record and store data collected during the course of a
survey
It takes the form of a series of questions
Which may be open-ended or closed,
Depending on whether or not the various possible answers
are suggested to the respondent being questioned
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Information
The information to be gathered must be
determined in relation to the objectives of the
survey
These usually include
The study of the disease’s distribution according to
demographic criteria
Age, sex, & physiological status
Accordingly, the questionnaire must make provision for
these data to be recorded
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Information
The study of disease’s distribution in terms of the
Types of house
Family size
Sanitary method
Exercise habit
The estimation of what proportion of respondents
are applying a particular preventive measure
The description of attitudes and opinions about a
particular disease control strategy
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Information
A questionnaire is thus a tool for gathering the
necessary data
in order to solve a problem via a decision about how the
disease should be controlled
It is more than just the simple transcription of
a conversation
between an interviewer and a respondent
Its objective is to invite answers which, when
processed, will be of use in decision-making
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Important consideration
Whatever the survey,
ethical consideration must be taken into account &
adhered to when collecting & processing data
In particular, in most surveys,
the anonymity of the patient must be guaranteed
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Procedure for designing a questionnaire
Setting out the survey’s
Stage 1: Objective objectives
Determining what data should be
Stage 2: Data gathered in order to meet the
objective as set
Formulating the questions contained
Stage 3: Questions in the questionnaire
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Types of questionnaire
Technical questionnaires
Opinion polls
Mixed questionnaires
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Technical questionnaires
The purpose of a technical questionnaire may
be
to collect data which can be observed by the
interviewer during the course of his visit
House size
Ventilation of the house
Cleanliness of the house
10
Opinion polls
Opinion polls aim
to discover the respondent’s views on different subjects, e.g
his views on the advantages of using a hand wash before feeding babies
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Open ended questionnaires
Consists entirely of ‘open-ended’ questions,
i.e those which allow the respondent to answer in his own
words, e.g
Who does the cooking in your house?
❑ Open-ended questions are most
often used in qualitative surveys
❑ These enable a subject to be
explored in depth & the various points
which should later be quantified
in a quantitative survey to be identified12
Closed questionnaire
Consist entirely of ‘closed’ questions,
for which the possible answers are already
given in the questionnaire, e.g
Who does the cooking in your house?
You?
Your wife?
Your made? ❑ Closed questionnaires are mainly
Other? used in quantitative surveys, which can
be used to produce numerical results
which describe a population
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Adv. & disadv. of open-ended & closed questionnaires
Advantages Disadvantages
No need to work out the Risk of obtaining a higher
Open-ended whole range of possible non-response rate
answers in advance Difficult to process afterwards
Information gathered will be (in order to computerise,
broader coding is necessary)
Narrows down & limits the
Good response rate information obtained
(convenient for the Requires anticipating all
Closed respondents) possible answers (& hence a
Easy to process a large thorough knowledge of the
number of completed subject)
questionnaires
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Mixed questionnaires
Most of the questionnaires used in
epidemiology are mixed questionnaires
A single question can also be mixed, e.g
Who does the cooking in your house?
You?
Your wife?
Your made?
Other, please give details--------------------
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Design of questionnaire
Title brief and accurate
Include covering letter with
reasons for survey
value of results &
statement outlining how confidentiality of answers will
be maintained
Wording
unambiguous
brief
unemotional
non-technical
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Design of questionnaire
One idea per question
Avoid terms like
Very
Often
Mild
Occasional
Big
As they mean different things to different people
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Design of questionnaire
Sequence of questions
Present general questions first
Separate related questions
Structure of questions
Closed questions must be mutually exclusive and exhaustive
Include “other” as a dumping category in closed questions to ensure
exhaustiveness
Note: When drafting closed questions, it is important not to omit any of the
potential answers. For this reason it is a good idea to allow for ‘other’ as an
answer, or else include ‘don’t know’ or ‘not applicable’
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Design of questionnaire
The respondent will react much more
favourably to a logical progression
than to an apparently random series
of questions
The most important questions
should be put in the middle of the
questionnaire
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Design of Questionnaire
Have a colleague review it
The time required to answer a questionnaire should not be
too long
of the order of 20 mins
never more than half an hour
Pilot trial and modify accordingly
The purpose of this is to check that the questions are
comprehensive and useful
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Administration of questionnaire
There are several ways of completing a questionnaire
Personal interview ‘face-to-face’
(Interviewer administered)
❑ Requires training for
interviewers
❑ Bias is difficult to avoid
(body language, tone of
voice)
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When interviewing -
❑ It is important to keep in mind that sometimes
of the day are busier for them than others, &
❑ accordingly to avoid those time.
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Administration of questionnaire
Telephone interview (Interviewer administered)
❑ Sometimes, additional
information can be obtained
through a short telephone
survey after a previous
personal or mail questionnaire
survey, e.g., to complete the
data & avoid missing values
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Administration of questionnaire
Mailed questionnaire
(Self-administered by mail & e-mail)
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Adv & disadv of questionnaire administration
Mail administered
least expensive method
allows a large number of people to be canvassed
lowest quality replies & lowest response rate (5-
25%)
bias
depending on what motivates those respondents who fill in
& send back the questionnaire &
what motivates those who do not
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Adv. & disadv. of questionnaire administration
Interviewer administered
best quality replies
most costly
thus can only cover a limited number of farmers
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Any question?
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