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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...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2015
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4608177 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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