Centre for Population Health, Burnet Institute, Melbourne, Australia.
J Epidemiol Community Health. 2010 Oct;64(10):885-9. doi: 10.1136/jech.2008.085316. Epub 2009 Sep 18.
Diaries are used in sexual behaviour research to reduce recall bias. Diary collection via mobile phone text messaging (SMS) has not been trialled previously in sexual behaviour research. This randomised controlled trial compared SMS, paper and online diaries on response rate, timeliness, completeness of data and acceptability. The correlation between behaviour reported in all three types of diaries and data collected in a retrospective questionnaire was also determined.
Participants were recruited by telephone and randomised into one of three groups. They completed weekly sexual behaviour diaries for 3 months by SMS, online or paper (by post). An online survey was conducted at the end of 3 months to compare retrospective reports to the diaries and assess opinions on the diary collection method.
72 participants were enrolled in the study, 24 in each group. Online diaries were more likely to be submitted late than SMS diaries (p<0.001). 3.9% of SMS diaries, 3.1% of paper diaries and 0.5% of online diaries were incomplete (p=0.001). Online data collection was the preferred mode for 51%. 65 participants completed the end point retrospective questionnaire. The correlation between the diary and questionnaire on sexual risk classification was substantial (kappa=0.74) regardless of diary mode.
SMS is a convenient and timely method of collecting brief behavioural data, but online data collection was preferable to most participants and more likely to be complete. Data collected in retrospective sexual behaviour questionnaires were found to agree substantially with data collected through weekly self-reported diaries.
日记被用于性行为研究以减少回忆偏倚。以前在性行为研究中没有试用过通过手机短信（SMS）收集日记。本随机对照试验比较了 SMS、纸质和在线日记在应答率、及时性、数据完整性和可接受性方面的差异。还确定了三种类型的日记中报告的行为与回顾性问卷中收集的数据之间的相关性。
通过电话招募参与者，并将他们随机分为三组。他们通过 SMS、在线或纸质（邮寄）完成为期 3 个月的每周性行为日记。在 3 个月结束时进行在线调查，将回顾性报告与日记进行比较，并评估对日记收集方法的意见。
本研究共纳入 72 名参与者，每组 24 名。在线日记比 SMS 日记更有可能延迟提交（p<0.001）。SMS 日记的 3.9%、纸质日记的 3.1%和在线日记的 0.5%不完整（p=0.001）。51%的人更喜欢在线数据收集方式。65 名参与者完成了终点回顾性问卷调查。无论日记模式如何，日记和问卷在性行为风险分类上的相关性都很强（kappa=0.74）。
SMS 是收集简短行为数据的便捷及时的方法，但在线数据收集方式对大多数参与者更具吸引力，且更有可能完整。通过每周自我报告日记收集的数据与通过回顾性性行为问卷收集的数据有很大的一致性。
