Survey Instruments 2014
Survey Instruments 2014
Survey Instruments 2014
Survey Instrument
(questionnaire)
What is a Questionnaire?
A questionnaire is a formalized set of
questions for obtaining information from
respondents.
Malhotra, 2006.
What we do?
Create a new questionnaire
Adapt a tested questionnaire
Make context-specific questionnaire
Questionnaire development
General rules
Good questions
Type of questions
Ordering of questions and answers
Wording of questions
Translation
Pretesting
Questionnaire development
General rules
Good question-1
Questions must be non-threatening
Does not use emotionally loaded or
vaguely defined words
Does not use unfamiliar words or
abbreviations
Asks for an answer on only one direction
Can accommodate all possible
responses
Good question-2
Does not presuppose a certain state of
affairs
Does not imply a desired answer
Has mutually exclusive options
Produces variability of responses
Sequencing
Type of questions-1
Multiple choice
What is your marital status?
Married living together
Married living separately
Not married but living together
Single
Widowed
Divorced
Dichotomous
Do you smoke?
Yes
No
Type of questions-2
Numeric open-ended
How much do you earn per month?
______________
Text open-ended
What was your reason for not participating in HIV
testing?
______________________________
Type of questions-3
Agreement scale/Likert scale
How much do you agree with following statement?
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Strongly disagree
Rating scale
How was the service provided by the doctor?
Excellent
Good
(3)
Fair
(2)
Poor
(4)
(1)
Type of question-4
Filter or contingency question.
Have you called in this month?
Yes
If Yes,
How many times?
1
2
3
4
5
No
Wording-1
Words like usually, often, sometimes,
occasionally, seldom, and rarely are
"commonly" used in questionnaires,
although it is clear that they do not mean
the same thing to all people.
Wording-2
Some adjectives have highly variable
meanings and should be avoided in
surveys.
a
clear
mandate,
most,
numerous,
a substantial majority, a
minority of,
a large proportion of,
a significant number of, many,
a considerable number of,
and several.
Wording-3
Other adjectives produce less variability
and generally have more shared meaning.
lots, almost all, virtually all, nearly all, a
majority of, a consensus of, a small number
of, not very many of, almost none, hardly
any, a couple, and a few
Pre-testing
How the instrument works in real situation?
Both the questions and layout
Experienced interviewer
Population similar to the survey population
How long an interview takes?
Helps to determine how many interviewers
needed
Pre-testing
The process of pre-testing a
questionnaire is frequently referred to as
piloting the questionnaire or conducting
a pilot survey
The questionnaire is administered to a
limited number of individuals who
preferably belong the same population
from which we have drawn the sample
for the actual survey, but who are not
included in such sample
Pretesting
Pre-testing a questionnaire allows to
check
for
comprehension
and
coherence in the structure of the
questionnaire
Translation
Questionnaire should be translated into the local
language (mother tongue) of the respondents
The pretest should be done using the translated
questionnaire
The translated questionnaire should be retranslated into the original language (English) it
was developed in because back translation
ensures that the questionnaire has been
translated properly
Response Rate
The response rate is the single most
important indicator of how much
confidence can be placed in the results of
a survey.
A low response rate can be devastating for
the reliability of a study.
Finalization
Use close ended questions as much as
possible
Avoid too many categories
Check skip patterns
Final note
KEEP
IT
SHORT and
SIMPLE