Population Surveys of Children’s Health and Wellbeing: Parental Views on Data Collection Content and Methods

Abstract

Pre‐testing is a standard tool to increase appropriateness and to capture the audience, yet rarely is this technique employed for population surveys. This study aimed to examine parental views on the content and methodology of a population child health survey. Forty‐eight Australian families of children aged 0–12 years were interviewed about the content and proposed data collection methods of the draft Victorian Population Survey of Child Health and Wellbeing. Concerns with instructions and items of several commonly used child health measures were identified. Parents preferred face‐to‐face methods rather than telephone interviews due to survey legitimacy; however, 72% of parents indicated that they would participate in a telephone survey. This study provided new findings about respondent views on child health measures and the conditions under which CATI versus face‐to‐face methods for child health data collection methods would be acceptable.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation for Elizabeth Waters' and Elise Davis' public health fellowship. We would also like to acknowledge Manningham Council, La Trobe City Council, Yarra City Council and all of the nurses, teachers, parents and children who participated in the project.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Waters

Elizabeth Waters is the Chair of Public Health in the School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences at Deakin University, 221 Burwood Hwy, Victoria, 3125, Australia. Professor Waters has 87 peer‐reviewed journal publications, 8 systematic reviews and 10 book chapters.

Elise Davis (Nee Maher)

Elise Davis is a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences at Deakin University, 221 Burwood Hwy, Victoria, 3125, Australia. Elise Davis has 18 publications in the area of child health.

Ozlem Mehmet‐Radji

Ozlem Mehmet‐Radji is a Research Assistant at the Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children’s Hospital, Flemington Rd, Parkville, 3052, Australia. She is an experienced interviewer with a background in psychology.