Department of Biostatistics Seminar/Workshop Series

Questionnaires and the Role of the Biostatistician: A Discussion

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, if not fatal, flaws that compromise any and all conclusions. In this discussion section, a series of questions will be posed to the audience regarding their experience with questionnaires. A special emphasis will be placed on interactions with researchers using potentially flawed instruments. Such topics may include, but are not limited to: what are these flaws, do they have varying degrees of severity when it comes to the final analysis and in the presence of a flawed questionnaire, can any meaningful information be extracted?