Surveys. You see them all the time on your social media feed, in your email, at your doctor’s office… Have you ever wondered what happens before the survey gets to you to complete it?
Believe it or not, doing a survey, for research—not just for laughs on social media—is a surprisingly complex process! It can take months to get everything ready for you to spend the few minutes it takes to complete the survey. Researchers have to ask themselves a lot of questions (before they ask you a lot of questions), and answer with really good answers. Question 1. Why is the information important? Before researchers can even begin to start planning the survey, they have to have a really good reason for doing it. Answer. We on the FEAST team decided that we had such a great following that we would try to discover new information about how our community of people living with mobility impairing disabilities are handling the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is unlike anything any of us have ever seen before, and we don’t know anything! So, for the past few months we have been getting ready to launch a new survey study about COVID-19. Question 2. Why is doing a survey the best way to get the information? Answer. We find it is best to ask the experts (that’s you!) with surveys. By asking experts from the community, we get first hand understanding about what is important to consider for improving health and quality of life for people in the community. Surveys are also low risk and low cost, which are important features to consider particularly right now while we are in economically strained times. Question 3. How do you decide what questions to ask? Answer. Survey research uses questions that you answer. Survey questions are pre-tested to make sure that they are reliable and valid. Reliable means that you can answer them more or less consistently the same way every time. Because people may respond a bit differently from time to time, surveys may often ask several questions that get at the same topic. This may seem repetitive and boring, but it helps to make sure that you are giving the most accurate response about how you really feel about something. Valid questions are questions that actually measure what they are supposed to measure. For example, if you wanted to know what time it is, you would ask “what time is it?” You wouldn’t ask, “what day is it?” because that wouldn’t be a valid question to answer what you wanted to know. Question 4. Does anyone have to approve the survey before I take it? Answer. FEAST is an ongoing collection of research studies with human research participants (that’s you!). All studies that involve human research participants are carefully reviewed and approved by an institutional review board (IRB)—sometimes called an ethics committee—at the institution where the research is being conducted. This is true everywhere in the world. The IRB makes sure that there are no unnecessary risks to participants, the research is following a clear and consistent protocol, and the research participants and their information are kept safe and secure. Question 5. What will the information be used for? The reason why we get expert information is to help inform next steps for research, policy and practice. We at the FEAST HQ are actively working to improve health, services and life for people with disabilities.
0 Comments
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |