Medical Care Research Unit, School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Regent Street, Sheffield S1 4DA, UK.
BMC Med Res Methodol. 2010 Jun 9;10:52. doi: 10.1186/1471-2288-10-52.
To address three methodological challenges when attempting to measure patients' experiences and views of a system of inter-related health services rather than a single service: the feasibility of a population survey for identifying system users, the optimal recall period for system use, and the mode of administration which is most feasible and representative in the context of routine measurement of system performance.
Postal survey of a random sample of 900 members of the general population and market research telephone survey of quota sample of 1000 members of the general population.
Response rates to the postal and market research telephone population surveys were 51% (457 out of 893 receiving the questionnaire) and 9% (1014 out of 11924 contactable telephone numbers) respectively. Both surveys were able to identify users of the system in the previous three months: 22% (99/457) of postal and 15% (151/1000) of telephone survey respondents. For both surveys, recall of event occurrence reduced by a half after four weeks. The telephone survey more accurately estimated use of individual services within the system than the postal survey. Experiences and views of events remained reasonably stable over the three month recall time period for both modes of administration. Even though the response rate was lower, the telephone survey was more representative of the population, was faster and cheaper to undertake, and had fewer missing values.
It is possible to identify users of a health care system using a population survey. A recall period of three months can be used to estimate experiences and views but one month is more accurate for estimating use of the system. A quota sample market research telephone survey gives a low response rate yet is more representative and accurate than a postal survey of a random sample of the population.
为了解决在尝试衡量患者对相互关联的卫生服务系统而非单一服务的体验和看法时的三个方法学挑战：识别系统使用者的人群调查的可行性、系统使用的最佳回忆期，以及在常规测量系统性能的情况下最可行和最具代表性的管理模式。
对 900 名随机抽取的普通人群成员进行邮寄调查，并对 1000 名普通人群的配额样本进行市场研究电话调查。
邮寄和市场研究电话人群调查的回复率分别为 51%（893 名收到问卷的人中的 457 名）和 9%（11924 个可联系电话号码中的 1014 名）。两项调查都能够在过去三个月内识别系统的使用者：邮寄调查中有 22%（457 名中的 99 名），电话调查中有 15%（1000 名中的 151 名）。对于这两项调查，事件发生的回忆在四周后减少了一半。电话调查比邮寄调查更准确地估计了系统内个别服务的使用情况。在两种管理模式下，体验和事件的看法在三个月的回忆期内保持相对稳定。尽管回复率较低，但电话调查更具代表性，速度更快，成本更低，且缺失值更少。
使用人群调查识别卫生保健系统的使用者是可行的。三个月的回忆期可以用来估计体验和看法，但一个月更能准确估计系统的使用情况。配额样本市场研究电话调查的回复率较低，但比随机抽取的人群邮寄调查更具代表性和准确性。
