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Electronic versus paper-based data collection for conducting health-care research: A cost-comparison analysis.
- Source :
-
Indian journal of public health [Indian J Public Health] 2022 Oct-Dec; Vol. 66 (4), pp. 443-447. - Publication Year :
- 2022
-
Abstract
- Background: Containing expenditure and efficient resource use is essential to limit the increasing costs of health research. Electronic data collection (EDC) is thought to reduce the costs compared to paper-based data collection (PDC).<br />Objectives: As economic evidence in this area is scanty, especially in low- and middle-income countries, the objectives of the study are to perform an economic evaluation and compare the cost between EDC and PDC.<br />Methods: A cost-comparison study was conducted to compare between EDC and PDC from the institutional perspective for the year 2018, based on a community-based survey. Step-down cost accounting was adopted with a bottom-up approach for cost estimation. Total and unit costs were estimated with the base case comparison between EDC and PDC while using SPSS software (e-SPSS and p-SPSS, respectively). We conducted scenario analyses based on the usage of different software, R and STATA for both EDC and PDC (e-R, p-R, e-STATA, and p-STATA, respectively). One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analysis (PSA) was performed to examine the robustness of the observed results.<br />Results: In the base-case analysis, total costs of EDC and PDC were ₹72,617 ($1060.9) and 87,717 ($1281.5), respectively, with estimated cost reduction of ₹15,100 ($220.6). In other scenarios, the estimated cost reduction for e-R, e-STATA, p-R, p-STATA was ₹-274 ($4.0), 98 ($1.4), 14826 ($216.6), and 15,002 ($219.2), respectively, when compared to EDC-SPSS. On one-way and PSA, the results of the cost-comparison analysis were robust.<br />Conclusion: EDC minimizes institutional cost for conducting health research. This finding will help researchers in efficiently planning for the budget for their research.
- Subjects :
- Humans
India
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Surveys and Questionnaires
Software
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0019-557X
- Volume :
- 66
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Indian journal of public health
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 37039171
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.4103/ijph.ijph_1271_21