Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jun 1, 2021
Open Peer Review Period: Jun 1, 2021 - Jul 27, 2021
Date Accepted: Jul 27, 2021
Date Submitted to PubMed: Aug 3, 2021
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Comparison of the differences between web-based and traditional questionnaire surveys in pediatrics: Comparative Survey Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
The web-based survey is a novel method for data capture. Some studies have applied web-based survey in pediatrics, but few of them have reported the data on the differences between it and traditional questionnaire surveys.
Objective:
The objective of our study was to evaluate the internal consistency of web-based survey and to compare it with traditional questionnaire survey in pediatrics.
Methods:
A convenience sample of caregivers were invited to participate in the survey on the feeding patterns and their children’s eating behavior if their children were aged 2 to 7 years. A web-based survey and a traditional questionnaire survey were carried out between October 2018 and July 2019. A total of 1085 caregivers were involved in this study, and they were divided into 3 groups based on the methods and sources: (1) web-based survey from web source, (1) web-based survey from hospital source, (3) traditional questionnaire survey from hospital source. The data were then compared and analyzed.
Results:
A total of 735 caregivers participated in the web-based survey and 350 caregivers participated in the traditional questionnaire survey, and 816 cases were then included in the analyses after data processing. The effective rate of the web-based survey was 70.1% and the completeness rate of the traditional questionnaire survey was 86.0%. The data showed that there were no significant differences between web-based surveys from different sources. But the demographic characteristics between the web-based and traditional questionnaire surveys were significantly different, mainly in age and caregivers (P=.002 and P<.001). Age-specific stratified analysis then showed the scores of feeding patterns and reporting rates of eating behavior problems were significantly higher in the web-based survey compared to the traditional questionnaire survey, mainly in the younger age group after adjusting for demographic characteristics.
Conclusions:
Taken together, our study demonstrated that web-based survey could be a feasible tool in pediatric studies. However, differences in demographic characteristics and their possible impact on the results should be considered in the analyses.
Citation
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