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Developing

Survey Instrument
(questionnaire)

What is a Questionnaire?
A questionnaire is a formalized set of
questions for obtaining information from
respondents.

The overriding objective is to translate the researchers


information needs into a set of specific questions that
respondents are willing and able to answer.

Malhotra, 2006.

When we use questionnaire?


When need to administer to large
numbers of individuals simultaneously
When resources and money are limited
Impersonal nature
Familiar to most people

Criteria of a well designed


Questionnaire
Meet objectives of the study
Understandable for the data collector
Easy to understand for the respondent
Obtain complete and necessary information
Interview should be brief
Constructed in such a way that analysis could
be done
Pre-tested

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

Start with welcome message and self


introduction
Taking consent
Allow a Dont know or Not applicable
response to all questions
Include Other or None whenever either of
these is a logically possible answer
Be clear, specific and direct
Do not put two questions into one
Instruction for the respondent/ interviewer

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

The health worker was friendly


The health worker was respectful
The health worker was non judgmental

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

Question and Answer Order-1


The order of questions and answers can
encourage people to complete the
questionnaire
The order of questions or the order of
answer choices can affect the results of
the survey

Question and Answer Order-2


Early questions in a survey should be
easy and pleasant to answer
Opening questions should be easy to answer
and not in any way threatening to THE
respondents.

Question and Answer Order-3


Group together questions on the same
topic (possibility to create
sections/modules
Utilization of antenatal services
Section 1: Socio-demographic characteristics
Section 2: Service utilization questions
Section 3: Knowledge about the services
Section 4: Recommendations about the services

Question and Answer Order-4


Whenever possible place difficult or sensitive
questions towards the end or middle of the
survey

Example: Youth and HIV/AIDS


Age at first sex
Type of partner
Use of condom, breakage of condom
HIV testing

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

Sometimes we need to contextualize the


words, for example eclampsia.

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

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