Skip to main content
Postgraduate Medical Journal logoLink to Postgraduate Medical Journal
. 1999 Jul;75(885):397–400. doi: 10.1136/pgmj.75.885.397

Questionnaires: the use and abuse of social survey methods in medical research

J Eaden 1, M Mayberry 1, J Mayberry 1
PMCID: PMC1741277  PMID: 10474722

Abstract

We present a working review of survey methods based on market research technology. The structure of questionnaires, their distribution and analysis, are considered, together with techniques for increasing response rates.


Keywords: questionnaires; research methods

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (60.0 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Agréus L., Svärdsudd K., Nyrén O., Tibblin G. Reproducibility and validity of a postal questionnaire. The abdominal symptom study. Scand J Prim Health Care. 1993 Dec;11(4):252–262. doi: 10.3109/02813439308994840. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Cooper B., Brown A. C. Psychiatric practice in Great Britain and America: a comparative study. Br J Psychiatry. 1967 Jun;113(499):625–636. doi: 10.1192/bjp.113.499.625. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Drane J. W., Richter D., Stoskopf C. Improved imputation of non-responses to mailback questionnaires. Stat Med. 1993 Feb;12(3-4):283–288. doi: 10.1002/sim.4780120311. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Gilkison C. R., Fenton M. V., Lester J. W. Getting the story straight: evaluating the test-retest reliability of a university health history questionnaire. J Am Coll Health. 1992 May;40(6):247–252. doi: 10.1080/07448481.1992.9936289. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Kaner E. F., Haighton C. A., McAvoy B. R. 'So much post, so busy with practice--so, no time!': a telephone survey of general practitioners' reasons for not participating in postal questionnaire surveys. Br J Gen Pract. 1998 Mar;48(428):1067–1069. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Katz J. N., Chang L. C., Sangha O., Fossel A. H., Bates D. W. Can comorbidity be measured by questionnaire rather than medical record review? Med Care. 1996 Jan;34(1):73–84. doi: 10.1097/00005650-199601000-00006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Kay G. W., Jablonski D. A., Dogon I. L. Factors affecting the seating and fit of complete crowns: a computer simulation study. J Prosthet Dent. 1986 Jan;55(1):13–18. doi: 10.1016/0022-3913(86)90062-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Lydeard S. The questionnaire as a research tool. Fam Pract. 1991 Mar;8(1):84–91. doi: 10.1093/fampra/8.1.84. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Stone D. H. Design a questionnaire. BMJ. 1993 Nov 13;307(6914):1264–1266. doi: 10.1136/bmj.307.6914.1264. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Postgraduate Medical Journal are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES