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Mail merge can be used to create personalized questionnaires in complex surveys

BACKGROUND: Low response rates and inadequate question comprehension threaten the validity of survey results. We describe a simple procedure to implement personalized—as opposed to generically worded—questionnaires in the context of a complex web-based survey of corresponding authors of a random sam...

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Autores principales: Taljaard, Monica, Chaudhry, Shazia Hira, Brehaut, Jamie C., Weijer, Charles, Grimshaw, Jeremy M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4608177/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26475715
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13104-015-1570-5
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author Taljaard, Monica
Chaudhry, Shazia Hira
Brehaut, Jamie C.
Weijer, Charles
Grimshaw, Jeremy M.
author_facet Taljaard, Monica
Chaudhry, Shazia Hira
Brehaut, Jamie C.
Weijer, Charles
Grimshaw, Jeremy M.
author_sort Taljaard, Monica
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Low response rates and inadequate question comprehension threaten the validity of survey results. We describe a simple procedure to implement personalized—as opposed to generically worded—questionnaires in the context of a complex web-based survey of corresponding authors of a random sample of 300 published cluster randomized trials. The purpose of the survey was to gather more detailed information about informed consent procedures used in the trial, over and above basic information provided in the trial report. We describe our approach—which allowed extensive personalization without the need for specialized computer technology—and discuss its potential application in similar settings. RESULTS: The mail merge feature of standard word processing software was used to generate unique, personalized questionnaires for each author by incorporating specific information from the article, including naming the randomization unit (e.g., family practice, school, worksite), and identifying specific individuals who may have been considered research participants at the cluster level (family doctors, teachers, employers) and individual level (patients, students, employees) in questions regarding informed consent procedures in the trial. The response rate was relatively high (64 %, 182/285) and did not vary significantly by author, publication, or study characteristics. The refusal rate was low (7 %). CONCLUSION: While controlled studies are required to examine the specific effects of our approach on comprehension, quality of responses, and response rates, we showed how mail merge can be used as a simple but useful tool to add personalized fields to complex survey questionnaires, or to request additional information required from study authors. One potential application is in eliciting specific information about published articles from study authors when conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
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spelling pubmed-46081772015-10-17 Mail merge can be used to create personalized questionnaires in complex surveys Taljaard, Monica Chaudhry, Shazia Hira Brehaut, Jamie C. Weijer, Charles Grimshaw, Jeremy M. BMC Res Notes Research Article BACKGROUND: Low response rates and inadequate question comprehension threaten the validity of survey results. We describe a simple procedure to implement personalized—as opposed to generically worded—questionnaires in the context of a complex web-based survey of corresponding authors of a random sample of 300 published cluster randomized trials. The purpose of the survey was to gather more detailed information about informed consent procedures used in the trial, over and above basic information provided in the trial report. We describe our approach—which allowed extensive personalization without the need for specialized computer technology—and discuss its potential application in similar settings. RESULTS: The mail merge feature of standard word processing software was used to generate unique, personalized questionnaires for each author by incorporating specific information from the article, including naming the randomization unit (e.g., family practice, school, worksite), and identifying specific individuals who may have been considered research participants at the cluster level (family doctors, teachers, employers) and individual level (patients, students, employees) in questions regarding informed consent procedures in the trial. The response rate was relatively high (64 %, 182/285) and did not vary significantly by author, publication, or study characteristics. The refusal rate was low (7 %). CONCLUSION: While controlled studies are required to examine the specific effects of our approach on comprehension, quality of responses, and response rates, we showed how mail merge can be used as a simple but useful tool to add personalized fields to complex survey questionnaires, or to request additional information required from study authors. One potential application is in eliciting specific information about published articles from study authors when conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses. BioMed Central 2015-10-16 /pmc/articles/PMC4608177/ /pubmed/26475715 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13104-015-1570-5 Text en © Taljaard et al. 2015 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Taljaard, Monica
Chaudhry, Shazia Hira
Brehaut, Jamie C.
Weijer, Charles
Grimshaw, Jeremy M.
Mail merge can be used to create personalized questionnaires in complex surveys
title Mail merge can be used to create personalized questionnaires in complex surveys
title_full Mail merge can be used to create personalized questionnaires in complex surveys
title_fullStr Mail merge can be used to create personalized questionnaires in complex surveys
title_full_unstemmed Mail merge can be used to create personalized questionnaires in complex surveys
title_short Mail merge can be used to create personalized questionnaires in complex surveys
title_sort mail merge can be used to create personalized questionnaires in complex surveys
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4608177/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26475715
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13104-015-1570-5
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