Challenges and opportunities of a paperless baseline survey in Sri Lanka

BMC Research Notes

Flemming Konradsen³  Chris Metcalfe²  David Gunnell¹  Michael Eddleston⁴  Chamil Priyadarshana¹  Manjula Weerasinghe¹  Ravi Pieris¹  Rasmus Borgstrøm⁵  Melissa Pearson⁴  Duleeka W Knipe¹ 

[1] South Asian Clinical Toxicology Research Collaboration (SACTRC), Faculty of Medicine, University of Peradeniya, Peradeniya, Sri Lanka;School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK;Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark;Pharmacology, Toxicology & Therapeutics, University/BHF Centre for Cardiovascular Science University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK;Geographical Resource Analysis and Science (GRAS), C/O Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

关键词: Epidemiology;    Randomised control trial;    Data collection;    Handheld;    Computer;    Sri Lanka;   

Others  :  1131921
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-7-452

 received in 2013-06-13, accepted in 2014-06-27,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Personal digital assistants (PDAs) have been shown to reduce costs associated with survey implementation and digitisation, and to improve data quality when compared to traditional paper based data collection. Few studies, however, have shared their experiences of the use of these devices in rural settings in Asia. This paper reports on our experiences of using a PDA device for data collection in Sri Lanka as part of a large cluster randomised control trial.

Findings

We found that PDAs were useful for collecting data for a baseline survey of a large randomised control trial (54,000 households). We found that the PDA device and survey format was easy to use by inexperienced field staff, even though the survey was programmed in English. The device enabled the rapid digitisation of survey data, providing a good basis for continuous data quality assurance, supervision of staff and survey implementation. An unexpected advantage was the improved community opinion of the research project as a result of the device, because the use of the technology gave data collectors an elevated status amongst the community. In addition the global positioning system (GPS) functionality of the device allowed precise mapping of households, and hence distinct settlements to be identified as randomisation clusters. Future users should be mindful that to save costs the piloting should be completed before programming. In addition consideration of a local after-care service is important to avoid costs and time delays associated with sending devices back to overseas providers.

Discussion

Since the start of this study, PDA devices have rapidly developed and are increasingly used. The use of PDA or similar devices for research is not without its problems; however we believe that the universal lessons learnt as part of this study are even more important for the effective utilisation of these rapidly developing technologies in resource poor settings.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Knipe et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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