Comparison of text messaging data collection vs face-to-face interviews for public health surveys: a cluster randomized crossover study of care-seeking for childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea in rural China.

ABSTRACT:

Background

To compare text messaging and face-to-face interviews to conduct a survey on childhood diarrhoea and pneumonia.

Methods

Caregivers of young children able to send text messages in Zhao County in rural China were included in this crossover study. Villages (clusters) were randomized into two groups using the ratio 1:1.6 to account for an expected higher drop-out in group 2. In group 1, participants first completed the face-to-face and then text messaging survey; this order was reversed in group 2. We determined data equivalence of 17 questions that were answered by participants who were the same person in both surveys. For the text messaging survey, we assessed the overall and item response rate.

Results

We included 1014 participants between 16 and 28 March 20

SUBMITTER: van Velthoven MH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5997366 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature