Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Sep 2, 2019
Date Accepted: Dec 15, 2019
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Wording of Daily Diary Questions Matters: An Investigation of the Effect of Daily Diary Instructional Phrases on Respondents’ Recall Time frames
ABSTRACT
Background:
Daily diaries are extensively used for examining participants' daily experience in behavioral and medical science. Whether participants recall their experiences within the time frames prescribed by task has received little attention.
Objective:
The objectives of this study are to describe survey respondents' self-reported recall timeframe and to evaluate the impact of different daily diary items on respondents reported affective states.
Methods:
In this study, 577 participants completed a mood survey with one of four time frame instructions: 1) today, 2) since waking up today, 3) during the last 24 hours, or 4) in the last day. They were also asked to indicate the time periods they considered when answering these items and to recall the instructional phrases associated with the items.
Results:
Almost all participants in the "Today" (97%) and "Since waking up today" (94%)" conditions reported using time periods consistent with our expectations, while a lower proportion was observed in the "during the last 24 hours" (69%) condition. A diverse range of responses was observed in the "In the last day" condition. Furthermore, the instructions influenced the levels of some self-reported affects, although exploratory analyses were not able to identify the mechanism underlying this finding.
Conclusions:
Overall, these results indicate that "Today" and "Since waking up today" are the most effective instructional phrases for inquiring about daily experience and that investigators should use caution when using the other two instructional phrases.
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