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Survey Fatigue During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Analysis of Neurosurgery Survey Response Rates

Authors :
Abdullah Egiz
Jay Kotecha
Ana Catinca Ciuculete
George Higginbotham
Dawin Sichimba
David Ulrich Dalle
Ulrick Sidney Kanmounye
Rosaline de Koning
Nourou Dine Adeniran Bankole
Mehdi Khan
Setthasorn Zhi Yang Ooi
Soham Bandyopadhyay
Joshua Erhabor
Source :
Frontiers in Surgery, Vol 8 (2021), Frontiers in Surgery, Europe PubMed Central
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Frontiers Media SA, 2021.

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a surge in research activity while restricting data collection methods, leading to a rise in survey-based studies. Anecdotal evidence suggests this increase in neurosurgical survey dissemination has led to a phenomenon of survey fatigue, characterized by decreased response rates and reducing the quality of data. This paper aims to analyze the effect of COVID-19 on neurosurgery surveys and their response rates, and suggest strategies for improving survey data collection.Methods: A search was conducted on March 20, 2021, on Medline and EMBASE. This included the terms “neurosurgery,” “cranial surgery,” “spine surgery,” and “survey” and identified surveys written in English, on a neurosurgical topic, distributed to neurosurgeons, trainees, and medical students. Results were screened by two authors according to these inclusion criteria, and included articles were used for data extraction, univariable, and bivariable analysis with Fisher's exact-test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and Spearman's correlation.Results: We included 255 articles in our analysis, 32.3% of which were published during the COVID-19 pandemic. Surveys had an average of 25.6 (95% CI = 22.5–28.8) questions and were mostly multiple choice (78.8%). They were disseminated primarily by email (75.3%, 95% CI = 70.0–80.6%) and there was a significant increase in dissemination via social media during the pandemic (OR = 3.50, 95% CI = 1.30–12.0). COVID-19 surveys were distributed to more geographical regions than pre-pandemic surveys (2.1 vs. 1.5, P = 0.01) and had higher total responses (247.0 vs. 206.4, P = 0.01), but lower response rates (34.5 vs. 51.0%, P < 0.001) than pre-COVID-19 surveys.Conclusion: The rise in neurosurgical survey distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to survey fatigue, reduced response rates, and data collection quality. We advocate for population targeting to avoid over-researching, collaboration between research teams to minimize duplicate surveys, and communication with respondents to convey study importance, and we suggest further strategies to improve response rates in neurosurgery survey data collection.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2296875X
Volume :
8
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Frontiers in Surgery
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....2d51d3ee2c071e3c3f4fbe825b98bdf8
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3389/fsurg.2021.690680