Design and use of questionnaires: a review of best practice applicable to surveys of health service staff and patients
Health Technology AssessmentPublished 1 January 2001Open access
Elaine McColl, Ann Jacoby, L Thomas, Jennifer Soutter, Claire Bamford, N Steen
Citations795
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score1.36
SNIP1.69
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TL;DR
The aim is to gather valid, reliable, unbiased and discriminatory data from a representative sample of respondents, but the information yielded is subject to error and bias from a range of sources.
Abstract
T he NHS R&D Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme was set up in 1993 to ensure that high-quality research information on the costs, effectiveness and broader impact of health technologies is produced
Keywords
Economics, Econometrics and FinanceHealth Professions
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