Odum Institute: Quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques for health measurements

Quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques for health measurements

This 4-hour course will be offered via Zoom. Attendance is required as the course will not be recorded.

Course Summary:

Measuring someone’s health by means of questionnaires is a challenging task. The concept of health is very broad – it encompasses a person’s physical, social and mental state – which makes conceptualization difficult. In addition, there is a high risk of socially desirable answers, since people like to indicate that they are doing well. Finally, health research is often conducted among people who are not fit or the elderly for whom surveys are a cognitively demanding task.

This course will focus on both qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques to measure health. First, participants will learn about collecting qualitative data on health through semi-structured interviews and researcher driven photo-elicitation interviews. Ensuring the scientific quality of these forms of data collection will be discussed on the basis of Guba and Lincoln’s trustworthiness criteria. Finally, we pay attention to analyzing qualitative data by means of a thematic analysis. Second, participants will learn more about implementation of surveys in hospital waiting rooms, taking the Total Survey Error Framework into account. Special attention will be paid to the design of attitude response scales.

Level: Beginner, some basic knowledge on survey research methodology is helpful

Instructors: Marieke Haan, PhD, and Yfke Ongena, PhD

Marieke Haan, PhD, is senior lecturer at the Sociology Department of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. She teaches courses on Methodology & Data Collection and Qualitative Research Methods. Her research interests include mixed-device surveys, health surveys, and qualitative research methods in diverse fields (e.g., sociology, psychology and medical sciences). Haan’s most recent published papers focused on positive health perceptions of older adults, hospital waiting room surveys, and mobile device use in surveys. 

Yfke Ongena, PhD, is senior lecturer Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Her research interests include interviewer and respondent interaction in survey interviews, data collection in health surveys and social desirability response bias.

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