Using the Internet for Surveys and Health Research

By Gunther Eysenbach, J. Wyatt. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2002

824 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper concerns the use of the Internet in the research process, from identifying research issues through qualitative research, through using the Web for surveys and clinical trials, to pre-publishing and publishing research results. Material published on the Internet may be a valuable resource for researchers desiring to understand people and the social and cultural contexts within which they live outside of experimental settings, with due emphasis on the interpretations, experiences, and views of `real world' people. Reviews of information posted by consumers on the Internet may help to identify health beliefs, common topics, motives, information, and emotional needs of patients, and point to areas where research is needed. The Internet can further be used for survey research. Internet-based surveys may be conducted by means of interactive interviews or by questionnaires designed for self-completion. Electronic one-to-one interviews can be conducted via e-mail or using chat rooms. Questionnaires can be administered by e-mail (e.g. using mailing lists), by posting to newsgroups, and on the Web using fill-in forms. In "open" web-based surveys, selection bias occurs due to the non-representative nature of the Internet population, and (more importantly) through self-selection of participants, i.e. the non-representative nature of respondents, also called the `volunteer effect'. A synopsis of important techniques and tips for implementing Web-based surveys is given. Ethical issues involved in any type of online research are discussed. Internet addresses for finding methods and protocols are provided. The Web is also being used to assist in the identification and conduction of clinical trials. For example, the web can be used by researchers doing a systematic review who are looking for unpublished trials. Finally, the web is used for two distinct types of electronic publication. Type 1 publication is unrefereed publication of protocols or work in progress (a `post-publication' peer review process may take place), whereas Type 2 publication is peer-reviewed and will ordinarily take place in online journals.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d6daf4207b99e6c3756748e99924a133365225c6

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In General Health Professions

1. Gunther Eysenbach
2. M. Martinussen
3. H. Ball
4. Gabriela Ochoa
5. Amaryllis Mavragani
6. Cynthia Chew

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Gunther Eysenbach
2. H. Ball
3. Gabriela Ochoa
4. Amaryllis Mavragani
5. Mark D. Griffiths
6. Cynthia Chew

Citations in the corpus

• Survey Response Rates and Survey Administration in Counseling and Clinical Psychology (2009, background): “However, researchers report problems associated with use of the Internet alone to conduct survey research (Eysenbach & Wyatt, 2002; Faught, Whitten, & Green, 2004; Kypri, Gallagher, & Cashell-Smith, 2004; McMahon et al., 2003; Scriven & Smith-Ferrier, 2003): sample bias as respondents must have…”
• An internet survey of 2,596 people with fibromyalgia (2007, positive): “Internet-based surveys are increasingly used to obtain patient data [55] and several studies have reported a good correlation with paper-andpencil surveys [56,57].”
• Improving the Quality of Web Surveys: The Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES) (2004, background): “As explained in an accompanying editorial [4] as well as in a previous review [5], such surveys can be subject to considerable bias.”