1. A comparison of smartphone and paper data-collection tools in the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study in Gezira state, Sudan
- Author
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Peter Burney, R Robinson, Kevin Mortimer, S. Bertel Squire, Asma Elsony, Rachael Thomson, Rana Ahmed, Rasmus Malmborg, Kodgule, Rahul, and Wellcome Trust
- Subjects
Male ,Rural Population ,Questionnaires ,Pulmonology ,020205 medical informatics ,Electronic data capture ,Physiology ,lcsh:Medicine ,Social Sciences ,Pilot Projects ,02 engineering and technology ,Pathology and Laboratory Medicine ,ELECTRONIC DATA CAPTURE ,Medical Records ,Sudan ,Geographical Locations ,Random Allocation ,Habits ,0302 clinical medicine ,Cohen's kappa ,Sociology ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Smoking Habits ,Medicine and Health Sciences ,Coughing ,0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering ,Electronic Health Records ,Public and Occupational Health ,030212 general & internal medicine ,lcsh:Science ,Medical History Taking ,Observer Variation ,education.field_of_study ,wa_30 ,Schools ,Multidisciplinary ,Data Collection ,Smoking ,wa_900 ,Information quality ,Middle Aged ,Socioeconomic Aspects of Health ,Obstructive lung disease ,Multidisciplinary Sciences ,Open data ,Research Design ,Science & Technology - Other Topics ,Engineering and Technology ,Female ,Smartphone ,Symptom Assessment ,wf_600 ,Research Article ,Adult ,Paper ,wa_950 ,Adolescent ,General Science & Technology ,Population ,Equipment ,Research and Analysis Methods ,Sampling Studies ,Education ,Young Adult ,03 medical and health sciences ,Signs and Symptoms ,Diagnostic Medicine ,Environmental health ,MD Multidisciplinary ,medicine ,Humans ,Lung Diseases, Obstructive ,education ,c941fbbd ,Aged ,Communication Equipment ,Behavior ,Science & Technology ,Survey Research ,Data collection ,business.industry ,lcsh:R ,Biology and Life Sciences ,medicine.disease ,Health Care ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,Dyspnea ,Data quality ,People and Places ,Africa ,Feasibility Studies ,lcsh:Q ,Forms and Records Control ,Cell Phones ,Physiological Processes ,business - Abstract
Introduction \ud Data collection using paper-based questionnaires can be time consuming and return errors affect data accuracy, completeness, and information quality in health surveys. We compared smartphone and paper-based data collection systems in the Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study in rural Sudan. \ud Methods \ud This exploratory pilot study was designed to run in parallel with the cross-sectional household survey. The Open Data Kit was used to programme questionnaires in Arabic into smartphones. We included 100 study participants (83% women; median age = 41.5 ± 16.4 years) from the BOLD study from 3 rural villages in East-Gezira and Kamleen localities of Gezira state, Sudan. Questionnaire data were collected using smartphone and paper-based technologies simultaneously. We used Kappa statistics and inter-rater class coefficient to test agreement between the two methods. Results Symptoms reported included cough (24%), phlegm (15%), wheezing (17%), and shortness of breath (18%). One in five were or had been cigarette smokers. The two data collection methods varied between perfect to slight agreement across the 204 variables evaluated (Kappa varied between 1.00 and 0.02 and inter-rater coefficient between 1.00 and -0.12). Errors were most commonly seen with paper questionnaires (83% of errors seen) vs smartphones (17% of errors seen) administered questionnaires with questions with complex skip-patterns being a major source of errors in paper questionnaires. Automated checks and validations in smartphone-administered questionnaires avoided skip-pattern related errors. Incomplete and inconsistent records were more likely seen on paper questionnaires. \ud Conclusion \ud Compared to paper-based data collection, smartphone technology worked well for data collection in the study, which was conducted in a challenging rural environment in Sudan. This approach provided timely, quality data with fewer errors and inconsistencies compared to paper-based data collection. We recommend this method for future BOLD studies and other population-based studies in similar settings.
- Published
- 2018