Mobile Phone Survey Research Articles

Anxiety levels, precautionary behaviours and public perceptions during the early phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in China: a population-based cross-sectional survey

ObjectiveTo investigate psychological and behavioural responses to COVID-19 among the Chinese general population.Design, setting and participantsWe conducted a population-based mobile phone survey between 1 February and 10 February 2020 via...

The time it takes to reveal embarrassing information in a mobile phone survey

ABSTRACT To explore socially desirable responding in telephone surveys, this study examines response latencies in answers to 27 questions in a corpus of 319 audio-recorded voice interviews on iPhones. Response latencies were compared when respondents (a) answered questions on sensitive vs. nonsensitive topics (as classified by online raters); (b) produced more vs. less socially desirable answers; and (c) were interviewed by a professional interviewer or an automated system. Respondents answered questions on sensitive topics more quickly than on nonsensitive topics, though patterns varied by question format (categorical, numerical, ordinal). Independent of question sensitivity, respondents gave less socially desirable answers more quickly when answering categorical and ordinal questions but more slowly when answering numeric questions. Respondents were particularly quicker to answer sensitive questions when asked by interviewers than by the automated system. Findings demonstrate that response times can be (differently) revealing about question and response sensitivity in a telephone survey.

Informed Consent for Mobile Phone Health Surveys in Colombia: A Qualitative Study.

Public health surveys deployed through automated mobile phone calls raise a set of ethical challenges, including succinctly communicating information necessary to obtain respondent informed consent. This study aimed to capture the perspectives of key stakeholders, both experts and community members, on consent processes and preferences for participation in automated mobile phone surveys (MPS) of non-communicable disease risk factors in Colombia. We conducted semi-structured interviews with ethics and digital health experts and focus group discussions with community representatives. There was meaningful disagreement within both groups regarding the necessity of consent, when the purpose of a survey is to contribute to the formulation of public policies. Respondents who favored consent emphasized that consent communications ought to promote understanding and voluntariness, and implicitly suggested that information disclosure conform to a reasonable person standard. Given the automated and unsolicited nature of the phone calls and concerns regarding fraud, trust building was emphasized as important, especially for national MPS deployment. Community sensitization campaigns that provide relevant contextual information (such as the name of the administering institution) were thought to support trust-building. Additional ways to achieve the goals of consent while building trust in automated MPS for disease surveillance should be evaluated in order to inform ethical and effective practice.

Insights into the Utility and Management of Mobile Phone Panel Surveys: Evidence from Surveys of Household Resilience in Myanmar

Interest in the use of mobile phone surveys has skyrocketed in recent years. The need for quick, reliable and low-cost information in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has only added to the momentum. Phones survey offer numerous advantages when considered alongside traditional face-to-face surveys, including: remote access to respondents; near-real-time data collection; and lower administration costs. Many of these benefits are especially relevant to evaluators seeking to track resilience in post-disaster environments – contexts where it is often unsafe or difficult to access communities of interest. While rapid proliferation of phone networks and use in developing countries has opened new opportunities for researchers and development practitioners, the strengths and limitations of mobile phone surveys are still poorly understood.In this paper we provide insights into the utility and management of mobile phone surveys using quantitative and qualitative results from a unique high-frequency mobile phone panel survey on household resilience in Myanmar. In particular, we draw on a programme of work launched by Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED), an initiative that collected seventeen waves of survey data across two sites in eastern Myanmar between June 2017 and March 2019. By comparing phone surveys with a parallel face-to-face survey we reveal modest mode effects in perceived levels of resilience. For the most part, however, mode effects do not differ significantly across key socio-economic groups. The same is also true for non-response rates across panel waves – with the exception of household size. We also highlight a series of lessons learned in promoting low attrition rates in high-frequency phone surveys, including discussion of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations drawing on key informant interviews with enumerators and respondents. Finally, we offer suggestions and tips on how to effectively manage a mobile phone panel survey drawing on the experiences of the BRACED programme – ranging from call centre set-up to quality control and enumerator.

Adaptation of a mobile phone health survey for risk factors for noncommunicable diseases in Colombia: a qualitative study

ABSTRACT Background Data collection on noncommunicable disease (NCD) behavioral risk factors has traditionally been carried out through face-to-face surveys. However, its high costs and logistical difficulties can lead to lack of timely statistics for planning, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Mobile phone surveys (MPS) have the potential to fill these gaps. Objective This study explores perceptions, feasibility and strategies to increase the acceptability and response rate of health surveys administered through MPS using interactive voice response in Colombia. Method A sequential multimodal exploratory design was used. We conducted key informant interviews (KII) with stakeholders from government and academia; focus group discussions (FGDs) and user-group tests (UGTs) with young adults and elderly people living in rural and urban settings (men and women). The KII and FGDs explored perceptions of using mobile phones for NCD surveys. In the UGTs, participants were administered an IVR survey, and they provided feedback on its usability and potential improvement. Results Between February and November 2017, we conducted 7 KII, 6 FGDs (n = 54) and 4 UGTs (n = 34). Most participants consider MPS is a novel way to explore risk factors in NCDs. They also recognize challenges for their implementation including security issues, technological literacy and telecommunications coverage, especially in rural areas. It was recommended to promote the survey using mass media before its deployment and stressing its objectives, responsible institution and data privacy safeguards. The preferences in the survey administration relate to factors such as skills in the use of mobile phones, age, availability of time and educational level. The participants recommend questionnaires shorter than 10 minutes. Conclusions The possibility of obtaining data through MPS at a population level represents an opportunity to improve the availability of risk-factor data. Steps towards increasing the acceptability and overcoming technological and methodological challenges need to be taken.

Fusing Mobile Phone and Travel Survey Data to Model Urban Activity Dynamics

A key issue to understand urban system is to characterize the activity dynamics in a city—when, where, what, and how activities happen in a city. To better understand the urban activity dynamics, city-wide and multiday activity participation sequence data, namely, activity chain as well as suitable spatiotemporal models, are needed. The commonly used household travel survey data in activity analysis suffers from limited sample size and temporal coverage. The emergence of large-scale spatiotemporal data in urban areas, such as mobile phone data, provides a new opportunity to infer urban activities and the underlying dynamics. However, the challenge is the absence of labeled activity information in mobile phone data. Consequently, how to fuse the useful information in household survey data and mobile phone data to build city-wide, multiday, and all-time activity chains becomes an important research question. Moreover, the multidimension structure of the activity data (e.g., location, start time, duration, type) makes the extraction of spatiotemporal activity patterns another difficult problem. In this study, the authors first introduce an activity chain inference model based on tensor decomposition to infer the missing activity labels in large-scale and multiday activity data, and then develop a spatiotemporal event clustering model based on DBSCAN, called STE-DBSCAN, to identify the spatiotemporal activity patterns. The proposed approaches achieved good accuracy and produced patterns with a high level of interpretability.

Introduction of Community-Based Preconception Care for Men and Women of Childbearing Age in Seoul

Community-based preconception care for men and women of childbearing age has been introduced in Seoul. The program aims to focus on problem areas such as low birth rate, fertility issues potentially due to late marriages, preterm or premature births, and low-birthweight in newborn babies. The district administration officials of Seoul, as well as, academics from the Korean Society of Maternal and Child Health, developed a protocol by using a questionnaire and laboratory test for screening risk factors in pregnancy. The protocol was tested on a trial basis in four local districts in Seoul from July 2017 to 2018, extended to 12 local districts in 2019, and all 25 districts in Seoul in 2020. The protocol includes Anti-Mullerian Hormone tests to assess women’s ovarian reserve and male health checkups that include semen analysis and physical examinations of genitalia. These tests are conducted for early detection and treatment of infertility, especially in cases of late marriages. In order to prevent women being abandoned during pregnancy (leading them to single-parenting), the protocol also emphasizes building a gender-sensitive environment by encouraging more male participation. A monitoring group comprised of Seoul city district officials and academics from the Korean Society of Maternal and Child Health, regularly visited the local districts to observe improvements and keep the program officials up to date. In addition, the group also conducted a mobile phone survey for feedback on the program. The interest and support of the residents in Seoul city, and positive results and development in pregnancy care and childbirth, are needed to stabilize and extend this protocol.

Automated and Interviewer-Administered Mobile Phone Surveys in Burkina Faso: Sociodemographic Differences Among Female Mobile Phone Survey Respondents and Nonrespondents.

BackgroundThe remarkable growth of cell phone ownership in low- and middle-income countries has generated significant interest in using cell phones for conducting surveys through computer-assisted telephone interviews, live interviewer-administered surveys, or automated surveys (ie, interactive voice response).ObjectiveThis study aimed to compare, by mode, the sociodemographic characteristics of cell phone owners who completed a follow-up phone survey with those who did not complete the survey.MethodsThe study was based on a nationally representative sample of women aged 15 to 49 years who reported cell phone ownership during a household survey in Burkina Faso in 2016. Female cell phone owners were randomized to participate in a computer-assisted telephone interview or hybrid interactive voice response follow-up phone survey 11 months after baseline interviews. Completion of the phone survey was defined as participants responding to more than 50% of questions in the phone survey. We investigated sociodemographic characteristics associated with cell phone survey completion using multivariable logistic regression models, stratifying the analysis by survey mode and by directly comparing computer-assisted telephone interview and hybrid interactive voice response respondents.ResultsA total of 1766 women were called for the phone survey between November 5 and 17, 2017. In both the computer-assisted telephone interview and hybrid interactive voice response samples, women in urban communities and women with secondary education or higher were more likely to complete the survey than their rural and less-educated counterparts. Compared directly, women who completed the hybrid interactive voice response survey had higher odds of having a secondary education than those who completed computer-assisted telephone interviews (odds ratio 1.7, 95% CI 1.1-2.6).ConclusionsIn Burkina Faso, computer-assisted telephone interviews are the preferred method of conducting cell phone surveys owing to less sample distortion and a higher response rate compared with a hybrid interactive voice response survey.

Shining a light on the pathogenicity of health care providers' mobile phones: Use of a novel ultraviolet-C wave disinfection device

Mobile phones are known to carry pathogenic bacteria and viruses on their surfaces, posing a risk to healthcare providers (HCPs) and hospital infection prevention efforts. We utilize an Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) device to provide an effective method for mobile phone disinfection and survey HCPs about infection risk. Environmental swabs were used to culture HCPs' personal mobile phone surfaces. Four cultures were obtained per phone: before and after the UV-C device's 30-second disinfecting cycle, at the beginning and end of a 12-hour shift. Surveys were administered to participants pre- and poststudy. Total bacterial colony forming units were reduced by 90.5% (P = .006) after one UV-C disinfection cycle, and by 99.9% (P = .004) after 2 cycles. Total pathogenic bacterial colony forming units were decreased by 98.2% (P = .038) after one and >99.99% (P = .037) after 2 disinfection cycles. All survey respondents were willing to use the UV-C device daily to weekly, finding it convenient and beneficial. This novel UV-C disinfecting device is effective in reducing pathogenic bacteria on mobile phones. HCPs would frequently use a phone disinfecting device to reduce infection risk. In light of the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, a standardized approach to phone disinfection may be valuable in preventing healthcare-associated infections.

A mixed methods investigation of implementation barriers and facilitators to a daily mobile phone sexual risk assessment for young women in Soweto, South Africa.

BackgroundThe HIV epidemiology in South Africa reveals stark age and gender disparities, with young women being the most vulnerable to HIV acquisition in 2017. Evaluation of HIV exposure is a challenge in HIV prevention research. Intermittent in-clinic interviewer-administered risk behaviour assessments are utilised but may be limited by social desirability and recall biases. We piloted a mobile phone application for daily self-report of sexual risk behaviour in fifty 18–25 year old women at risk of HIV infection enrolled in HIV Vaccine Trials Network 915 (HVTN 915) in Soweto, South Africa. Through a mixed-methods investigation, we explored barriers and facilitators to completing daily mobile phone surveys among HVTN 915 study participants and staff.MethodsWe analysed quantitative data on barriers and facilitators to mobile phone study completion collected during the larger HVTN 915 study as well as two post-study focus group discussions (FGDs) with fifteen former participants with a median age of 24 years (IQR 23–25) and six individual in-depth interviews (IDIs) with HVTN 915 staff. FGDs and IDIs utilised semi-structured interview guides, were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and translated to English. After coding, thematic analysis was performed.ResultsThe main facilitator for daily mobile phone survey completion assessed across 336 follow-up visits for 49 participants was the daily short message system (SMS) reminders (93%, 312/336). Across 336 visits, 31/49 (63%) retained participants reported barriers to completion of daily mobile phone surveys: forgetting (20%, 12/49), being too busy (19%, 11/49) and the survey being an inconvenience (15%, 9/49). Five main themes were identified during the coding of IDIs and FGDs: (1) facilitators of mobile phone survey completion, such as daily SMS reminders and follow up calls for non-completers; (2) barriers to mobile phone survey completion, including partner, time-related and technical barriers; (3) power of incentives; (4) response bias in providing sensitive information, and (5) recommendations for future mobile phone based interventions.ConclusionDespite our enthusiasm to use innovation to optimise sexual risk assessments, technical and practical solutions are required to improve implementation. We recommend further engagement with participants to optimise this approach and to further understand social desirability bias and study incentives in sexual risk reporting.

Gaucher disease specific patients reported outcome measures: A mobile phone survey

Gaucher disease specific patients reported outcome measures: A mobile phone survey

Parental decisional satisfaction after hypospadias repair in the United Kingdom

In hypospadias, the aim of surgical treatment is to achieve both desirable functional and cosmetic outcomes; however, complications following surgery are common and 18% of boys require re-operation. In mild degrees of hypospadias, repair may be offered entirely to improve cosmesis, meaning parents should be fully informed of this and the potential for complications, during the consent process. Parents' decision-making may be aided by making them aware of how others in a similar position have felt about the decision that they made for their child. One method of measuring parental satisfaction is decisional regret (DR). To assess parental satisfaction following hypospadias surgery in the United Kingdom by assessing DR and to determine the feasibility of obtaining meaningful data via a mobile phone survey. The National Outcomes Audit in Hypospadias database was commissioned by the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons to capture clinical information from hypospadias repairs. Following ethical approval (16/NW/0819), a text message was sent to mobile numbers in the database inviting participation in a questionnaire incorporating the validated DR scale (DRS). The primary outcome measure was mean DRS score, which was correlated with clinical information, a score of zero indicated no regret and 100 indicated maximum regret. There were 340 (37%) responses. The median age at the primary procedure was 16 (interquartile range 13-20) months. No DR (score=0) was detected in 186 (55% [95%CI 49-60]) respondents; however, moderate-to-severe DR (score=26-100) was seen in 21 (6.2% [95%CI 3.6-8.7]) respondents. On multivariate analysis, a distal meatus, a small glans and developing complications requiring repeat surgery were all associated with increased levels of regret (Table). There was no association between DR and cases performed per surgeon. Around half of respondents demonstrated no DR and postoperative complications requiring surgery were associated with the highest levels of DR, which is similar to a Canadian study. Lorenzo etal. however found that DR was associated with circumcision, which was undertaken in all boys; however, in this UK study, around a third of boys were circumcised and regret levels between those circumcised and those not circumcised were similar. The limitations of this work include the following: surgeons submitting their own data on complications and there is potential of selection bias between respondents and non-respondents as with any survey. Data from this study can be used to improve pre-operative counselling during the consent process. Smart mobile phone technology can be used successfully to distribute and collect parent-reported outcomes.

Knowledge gaps among smallholder farmers hinder adoption of conservation biological control

ABSTRACTConservation biological control uses habitat management to enhance the survival and impact of arthropod natural enemies for pest control. Its advantages are that it relies on native or established invertebrate populations that are adapted to local agricultural ecosystems and conditions. We surveyed 300 farmers in three agro-ecological zones of Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania to assess farmers’ knowledge of natural enemies, insect pests and pesticide use and ways of accessing agricultural information to identify hurdles to the adoption of conservation biological control measures. Data were collected through face to face interviews using questionnaires and pictures and by using a novel voice-response mobile phone survey. The farmers surveyed regarded almost all insects as pests, with data analyses revealing that 98.7% of farmers were completely unaware of natural enemies. After completing a short training course, however, awareness was transformed, with 80% of farmers recognising beneficial insects and expressing an intention to change farming practices to enhance their survival within the crop. Access to information about synthetic pesticide alternatives was a limiting factor to uptake of biological control measures with 8.7% of farmers reporting no access to agricultural information, while others were mostly dependent on agricultural officers. These findings identified a severe lack of knowledge among smallholder farmers about beneficial insects which will impact adoption of conservation biological control. We recommend improved access to information and knowledge among the technical officers and the smallholder farmers with direct training on agro-ecological intensification for wider adoption of conservation biological control.

In search of the optimal mode for mobile phone surveys in developing countries: A comparison of IVR, SMS, and CATI in Nigeria

Mobile phone surveys are increasingly prevalent in low- and middle-income countries. The main modes include computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), interactive voice response (IVR), and short message service (SMS, or text messaging). But there is surprisingly little research to guide researchers in selecting the optimal mode for a particular survey. To address this gap, this study compares cross-sectional CATI, IVR, SMS, and face-to-face (FTF) surveys of the general population in Nigeria. We ask four research questions: (1) What are production and response rates to CATI, IVR, SMS, and FTF surveys? (2) How representative (age, gender, education, marital status, literacy, household assets, urbanicity) are CATI, IVR, and SMS respondents relative to FTF respondents? (3) Can IVR and SMS provide an unbiased estimate of voting behavior? If there is bias, to what extent can weights reduce bias? (4) How does the cost and time differ across mobile phone survey modes? We find that FTF had the highest response rate (99%), followed by CATI (15%), IVR (3%) and SMS (0.2%). All mobile phone modes had substantial deficiencies with representativeness: mobile phones underrepresented women, older people, the less educated, and people in rural areas. There were differences in representativeness among mobile phone modes, but differences were relatively small and inconsistent. Both SMS and IVR produced biased estimates of voting relative to official statistics – but SMS was less biased than IVR. Weighting SMS and IVR data for demographic characteristics did not reduce bias. With regard to cost, we find that CATI is the most expensive mobile phone survey mode. For a survey of 3,000 completes, IVR is 43% the cost of CATI, and SMS is 24% the cost of CATI. SMS is significantly less expensive than IVR. We discuss the implications of these results for research and practice.

Acceptability and Use of Interactive Voice Response Mobile Phone Surveys for Noncommunicable Disease Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance in Rural Uganda: Qualitative Study.

BackgroundThere is need for more timely data to inform interventions that address the growing noncommunicable disease (NCD) epidemic. With a global increase in mobile phone ownership, mobile phone surveys can bridge this gap.ObjectiveThis study aimed to explore the acceptability and use of interactive voice response (IVR) surveys for surveillance of NCD behavioral risk factors in rural Uganda.MethodsThis qualitative study employed user group testing (UGT) with community members. The study was conducted at the Iganga-Mayuge Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (IM-HDSS) in Eastern Uganda. We conducted four UGTs which consisted of different categories of HDSS members: females living in urban areas, males living in urban areas, females living in rural areas, and males living in rural areas. Participants were individually sent an IVR survey, then were brought in for a group discussion using a semistructured guide. Data were analyzed thematically using directed content analysis.ResultsParticipants perceived that IVR surveys may be useful in promoting confidentiality, saving costs, and raising awareness on NCD behavioral risk factors. Due to the clarity and delivery of questions in the local language, the IVR survey was perceived as easy to use. Community members suggested scheduling surveys on specific days and sending reminders as ways to improve their use for surveillance. Social issues such as domestic violence and perceptions toward unknown calls, technological factors including poor network connections and inability to use phones, and personal issues such as lack of access to phones and use of multiple networks were identified as barriers to the acceptability and use of mobile phone surveys. However, incentives were reported to motivate people to complete the survey.ConclusionsCommunity members reflected on contextual and sociological implications of using mobile phones for surveillance of NCD behavioral risk factors. The opportunities and challenges that affect acceptability and use of IVR surveys should be considered in designing and implementing surveillance programs for NCD risk factors.

Uses of artificial and composite treatments in experimental methods: Reconsidering the problem of validity and its implications for stratification research

This paper promotes the incorporation of the expanding uses of experimental methods in stratification research and beyond. Social science experiments are usually criticized for their lack of external validity, especially their limited generalizability to real-life settings. We offer a critique of this concern by reaffirming the classical insight of experimental methodology that external validity should not be a key concern and focusing on some under-appreciated scientific payoffs to experimental control. We illustrate the opportunities for productive use of artificial and composite treatments in tandem to obtain three measures of inequality preference: generalized egalitarianism (derived from an incentivized behavioral game), acceptable merit-based economic differential (from a vignette experiment), and motivational value of income differentials (from a standard attitudinal item). This approach enables us to examine their roles in determining the perceived fairness of living standard given one’s effort—an outcome of much interest in subjective stratification research. The empirical results are based on a mobile phone survey of over 62,000 urban respondents, covering more than 330 of the largest cities in China. Using fixed-effects to control for locational unobservables, we show that perceived fairness is positively associated with tolerance of merit-based pay differential and, surprisingly, strict generalized egalitarian preference, but not with belief in income differentials as motivator for effort. Since the seemingly equivalent measures have very different predictive relationships with an individual’s perceived fairness, the results offer a cautionary tale of invalid interpretations that overlook the subtle nonequivalence among valid measurement strategies with differing degrees of realism.

Not All Patients with Mild Phenotype of Gaucher Disease (GD) Need Disease Specific Treatment As Reflected By Patients Reported Outcomes Measures

The introduction of disease specific therapy for patients with type 1 Gaucher disease (GD) was a revolution in the management of patients, but not without significant cost to the patient and to society. The management of mildly effected patients is still debated, and reviews about GD as well as chapters in textbooks fail to emphasize the fact that some patients may remain untreated for many years without any GD-related complications. Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) were developed as a way to ascertain patients' views of their symptoms, their functional status, and their health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL). In this study, we evaluated the responses to a GD -specific PROM of untreated patients with GD1 and compared them to patients on GD-specific therapy. Methods: A PROM survey was developed for GD including 15 questions; six Point Verbal Response Scale regarding the last month and nine Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) from 0-10 regarding the last week (Elstein D, et al. Molecular Genetics and Metabolism 2019;126:S52). The PROM survey was proven to be accurate in encompassing disease-specific patient concerns. A Hebrew translated version of the GD-PROM was sent via mobile phone survey to 400 adult patients with type 1 GD followed in our Gaucher Unit. Clinical data and treatment status were extracted from the clinical charts. T-test and Mann-Whitney U test were used to compare normally and non-normally distributed data in independent samples, respectively. IBM SPSS version 25 was used for analysis. Results were considered to be statistically significant when two-tailed P-values were ≤0.01. Results: A total of 181 patients responded (45% response rate) of whom 65 (36%) were followed for at least 5 years in our unit without receiving GD specific therapy, i.e. enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) and/or substrate reduction therapy (SRT). The median (range) age of patients, 49 (20-91) years, was not significantly different between treated and untreated patients. The percentage of patients with the N370S/N370S genotype was significantly higher in untreated patients [55/65 (85%)] compared to treated patients [67/116 (57%)]. Significantly more treated patients reported that GD had restricted their education/job (38, 34%) and fun activities (29,25%) compared to untreated patients, (4, 6.5%) and (2, 3%), respectively. Compared to untreated patients, treated patients were more worried to be an emotional burden on others [27 (23%) vs. 3 (5%)], of being financial burden on others [57 (50%) vs. 16 (25%)] and more concerned regarding the risk of bone disease [82 (74%) vs. 26 (40%)], and the risk of Parkinson disease [72 (64%) vs. 27 (42%)]. Treated patients had a significantly higher score on VAS for questions on swollen abdomen, fatigue, physical weakness, severity of bone pain and worry regarding the future over the past week compared to untreated patients (Table 1). Patients concern regarding the risk for cancer (32%) and VAS score for a question on depression were similar between groups. Conclusion:The GD-specific PROM survey shows that asymptomatic or mildly affected untreated patients with GD1 have good functional status and HRQoL, supporting our practice that not all patients with GD1 require disease-specific therapy. Still, we advise a periodic (annual or bi-annual) follow-up, preferably at a referral center. Inclusion of GD-specific PROMs in the periodic assessments is important for better understanding patients' perspectives. It is important to note that mildly affected and asymptomatic patients are mainly found among Ashkenazi Jews and from this aspect our cohort reflects patients' populations in Israel, USA, UK, etc. but less relevant to non-Jewish and particularly to Asian cohorts. With the expected increase in early diagnosis via parental and/or newborn screening the understanding that not all subjects diagnosed with GD needs disease-specific therapy is all the more important. Despite the expected differences between the more severely affected treated patients and the by definition milder untreated ones, still a high percentage of the treated patients show good HRQoL parameters, reflecting the overall success of ERT/SRT. Larger cohorts and further analysis will evaluate potential predictors for differences in PROMs within the treatment group. Disclosures Revel-Vilk: Sanofi: Honoraria, Other: Travel, Research Funding; Pfizer: Honoraria, Other: Travel, Research Funding; Takeda: Honoraria, Other: Travel, Research Funding; Prevail therapeutics: Honoraria, Other: Travel, Research Funding. Zimran:Prevail Therapeutics: Consultancy; TAKEDA: Honoraria; Centogene: Other: research grant; Targeted Cell Therapies: Consultancy; Pfize: Honoraria, Research Funding; Shire: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Bio-events: Honoraria.

Assessing public awareness and use of medical abortion via mobile phone survey in India,

ObjectiveWe assess the feasibility of measuring awareness and use of medical abortion via a mobile phone survey on social attitudes in India. Study designIn 2018, we conducted a mobile phone survey with 3455 married men and women in Bihar and Maharashtra, two of India’s most populous states. As part of a broader survey on social inequality, welfare programs, and health, we asked respondents about their awareness of medical abortion and whether they (or their wife) had ever had a medical abortion. ResultsAmong men and women in Bihar and Maharashtra, one fifth to one third of respondents said that they had heard of medical abortion. In Bihar, men were more likely than women to report having heard of pills that can be used to end a pregnancy. Awareness of medical abortion was positively associated with education and with women’s status within the household. Consistent with results from representative face-to-face surveys, reported use of abortion medications was low. ConclusionOur findings demonstrate that respondents are willing to answer abortion-related questions via mobile phone survey and reveal differences in reported awareness of medical abortion according to region, sex, education, and household status. ImplicationsInclusion of abortion-related questions in a large-scale, social attitudes phone survey is a feasible option for assessing public awareness of medical abortion in India.

Consent for mobile phone surveys of non-communicable disease risk factors in low-resource settings: an exploratory qualitative study in Uganda.

Lack of data for timely decision-making around the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) presents special challenges for policy makers, especially in resource-limited settings. New data collection methods, including pre-recorded Interactive Voice Response (IVR) phone surveys, are being developed to support rapid compilation of population-level disease risk factor information in such settings. We aimed to identify information that could be used to optimize consent approaches for future mobile phone surveys (MPS) employed in Uganda and, possibly, similar contexts. We conducted an in-depth qualitative study with key stakeholders in Uganda about consent approaches, and potential challenges, for pre-recorded IVR NCD risk factor surveys. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 key informants. A contextualized thematic approach was used to interpret the results supported by representative quotes. Several potential challenges in designing consent approaches for MPS were identified, including low literacy and the lack of appropriate ways of assessing comprehension and documenting consent. Communication with potential respondents prior to the MPS and providing options for callbacks were suggested as possible strategies for improving comprehension within the consent process. "Opt-in" forms of authorization were preferred over "opt-out". There was particular concern about data security and confidentiality and how matters relating to this would be communicated to MPS respondents. These local insights provide important information to support optimization of consent for MPS, whose use is increasing globally to advance public health surveillance and research in constructive ways.

Daytime Data and LSTM can Forecast Tomorrow's Stress, Health, and Happiness.

Accurately forecasting well-being may enable people to make desirable behavioral changes that could improve their future well-being. In this paper, we evaluate how well an automated model can forecast the next-day's well-being (specifically focusing on stress, health, and happiness) from static models (support vector machine and logistic regression) and time-series models (long short-term memory neural network models (LSTM)) using the previous seven days of physiological, mobile phone, and behavioral survey data. We especially examine how using only a portion of the day's data (e.g. just night-time, or just daytime) influences the forecasting accuracy. The results show that accuracy is improved, across every condition tested, by using an LSTM instead of using static models. We find that daytime-only physiology data from wearable sensors, using an LSTM, can provide an accurate forecast of tomorrow's well-being using students' daily life data (stress: 80.4%, health: 86.0%, and happiness: 79.1%), achieving the same accuracy as using data collected from around the clock. These findings are valuable steps toward developing a practical and convenient well-being forecasting system.