Abstract
This study compared results from Internet and written questionnaires about respiratory symptoms in order to find out if both forms of the survey yielded the same answers. One thousand seventy-one students, ages 13 to 17, were asked to complete either an Internet or a written questionnaire. The demographic characteristics of the participants equalled those of the general Dutch adolescent population. Participants were randomly assigned to fill out an electronic or written questionnaire. In addition to eight items from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire, two items on doctor visits (medical attention) regarding asthma or allergic disease during the past 12 months were included. The participation rate was 87%. The Internet version of the questionnaire showed fewer missing answers than the written version, but this was not statistically significant. The respiratory items did not show statistically significant score differences between the Internet and written modes of administration, and there was no visible trend for higher respectively lower scores by either mode of questionnaire administration. From these results, we conclude that respiratory questionnaires may be provided to adolescents electronically rather than on paper, since both approaches yielded equal results. To generalize these findings, we recommend repeated studies in other settings.
Highlights
In addition to tests and clinical measures, validated respiratory self-report questionnaires constitute essential tools in respiratory disease epidemiology, screening procedures, monitoring patients’ symptoms, and in clinical evaluation studies.[1,2,3,4] The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire with eight items on wheezing and asthma is a widely used, validated respiratory symptoms questionnaire.[5,6]Health questionnaires, such as the ISAAC questionnaire, are commonly distributed by means of paper forms, but researchers will increasingly be challenged to decide whether the original written version may be replaced by an electronic, respectively Internet version of the same instrument
The questionnaire included eight ISAAC items on wheezing and asthma 5,6 and two additional items asking whether medical attention had been sought during the last 12 months with regard to asthma or allergy
There were no statistically significant differences with regard to socio-demographic characteristics between the subgroups allocated to the Internet and written mode (Table 1)
Summary
In addition to tests and clinical measures, validated respiratory self-report questionnaires constitute essential tools in respiratory disease epidemiology, screening procedures, monitoring patients’ symptoms, and in clinical evaluation studies.[1,2,3,4] The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire with eight items on wheezing and asthma is a widely used, validated respiratory symptoms questionnaire.[5,6] Health questionnaires, such as the ISAAC questionnaire, are commonly distributed by means of paper forms, but researchers will increasingly be challenged to decide whether the original written version may be replaced by an electronic, respectively Internet version of the same instrument. Internet questionnaires allow dynamic question selection (e.g., skipping irrelevant questions) and data entry may be required before the respondent can proceed resulting in less missing data.[7,8,9]
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