Department of Biostatistics Seminar/Workshop Series
On the analysis and interpretation of the results from a questionnaire
Nathaniel D. Mercaldo, MS
Biostatistician II, Department of Biostatistics
VUMC
Wednesday, October 8, 1:45-2:55pm, MRBIII Conference Room 1220
Intended Audience: Persons interested in applied statistics, statistical theory, epidemiology, health services research, clinical trials methodology, statistical computing, statistical graphics, R users or potential users
The use of questionnaires to elicit information regarding practices or opinions is widespread in today's academic and social research arenas. Due to this popularity, a common misconception is that questionnaire development, implementation and summarization is straightforward and thus an inexpensive alternative to other study designs. Even if every attempt is made to construct a rigorous instrument this cavalier approach may lead to serious flaws that compromise any and all conclusions. In this discussion, we hope to elicit audience feedback regarding several analytical challenges that we have observed associated with questionnaire results. These include inconsistent responses among related questions and the overall summarization of a relatively long questionnaire.