Implications for Electronic Surveys in Inpatient Settings Based on Patient Survey Response Patterns: Cross-Sectional Study

Surveys of hospitalized patients are important for research and learning about unobservable medical issues (eg, mental health, quality of life, and symptoms), but there has been little work examining survey data quality in this population whose capacity to respond to survey items may differ from the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of medical Internet research 2023-11, Vol.25 (1), p.e48236-e48236
Main Authors: Gregory, Megan E, Sova, Lindsey N, Huerta, Timothy R, McAlearney, Ann Scheck
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cross-Sectional Studies
Data Accuracy
Data quality
Electronics
Generalizability
Health care access
Health surveys
Hospitalization
Hospitalized
Humans
Information management
Inpatient care
Inpatients
Internet
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Mental health
Missing data
Patient education
Patient satisfaction
Polls & surveys
Quality of Life
Reminders
Response rates
Self-efficacy
Tolerance
Validity
Web portals
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Summary:Surveys of hospitalized patients are important for research and learning about unobservable medical issues (eg, mental health, quality of life, and symptoms), but there has been little work examining survey data quality in this population whose capacity to respond to survey items may differ from the general population. The aim of this study is to determine what factors drive response rates, survey drop-offs, and missing data in surveys of hospitalized patients. Cross-sectional surveys were distributed on an inpatient tablet to patients in a large, midwestern US hospital. Three versions were tested: 1 with 174 items and 2 with 111 items; one 111-item version had missing item reminders that prompted participants when they did not answer items. Response rate, drop-off rate (abandoning survey before completion), and item missingness (skipping items) were examined to investigate data quality. Chi-square tests, Kaplan-Meyer survival curves, and distribution charts were used to compare data quality among survey versions. Response duration was computed for each version. Overall, 2981 patients responded. Response rate did not differ between the 174- and 111-item versions (81.7% vs 83%, P=.53). Drop-off was significantly reduced when the survey was shortened (65.7% vs 20.2% of participants dropped off, P
ISSN:1438-8871
1439-4456
1438-8871
DOI:10.2196/48236