Scott K, Ummer O, LeFevre A E
Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Oxford Policy Management, 4/6 1st Floor, Siri Fort Institutional Area, 11049 New Delhi, India.
Health Policy Plan. 2021 Jun 25;36(6):982-995. doi: 10.1093/heapol/czab048.
Cognitive interviewing is a qualitative research method for improving the validity of quantitative surveys, which has been underused by academic researchers and monitoring and evaluation teams in global health. Draft survey questions are administered to participants drawn from the same population as the respondent group for the survey itself. The interviewer facilitates a detailed discussion with the participant to assess how the participant interpreted each question and how they formulated their response. Draft survey questions are revised and undergo additional rounds of cognitive interviewing until they achieve high comprehension and cognitive match between the research team's intent and the target population's interpretation. This methodology is particularly important in global health when surveys involve translation or are developed by researchers who differ from the population being surveyed in terms of socio-demographic characteristics, worldview, or other aspects of identity. Without cognitive interviewing, surveys risk measurement error by including questions that respondents find incomprehensible, that respondents are unable to accurately answer, or that respondents interpret in unintended ways. This methodological musing seeks to encourage a wider uptake of cognitive interviewing in global public health research, provide practical guidance on its application, and prompt discussion on its value and practice. To this end, we define cognitive interviewing, discuss how cognitive interviewing compares to other forms of survey tool development and validation, and present practical steps for its application. These steps cover defining the scope of cognitive interviews, selecting and training researchers to conduct cognitive interviews, sampling participants, collecting data, debriefing, analysing the emerging findings, and ultimately generating revised, validated survey questions. We close by presenting recommendations to ensure quality in cognitive interviewing.
认知访谈是一种用于提高定量调查有效性的定性研究方法，全球卫生领域的学术研究人员以及监测和评估团队对其使用不足。将调查问卷初稿发放给与调查对象来自同一人群的参与者。访谈者协助与参与者进行详细讨论，以评估参与者如何理解每个问题以及他们如何形成自己的回答。调查问卷初稿经过修订，并进行多轮认知访谈，直到研究团队的意图与目标人群的理解之间达到高度的理解度和认知匹配。当调查涉及翻译，或者由社会人口特征、世界观或其他身份特征与被调查人群不同的研究人员开展时，这种方法在全球卫生领域尤为重要。如果没有认知访谈，调查问卷可能会因包含受访者难以理解、无法准确回答或理解方式与预期不符的问题而出现测量误差。本文旨在鼓励全球公共卫生研究更广泛地采用认知访谈，提供其应用的实用指南，并引发对其价值和实践的讨论。为此，我们定义了认知访谈，讨论了认知访谈与其他形式的调查工具开发和验证方法的比较，并介绍了其应用的实际步骤。这些步骤包括确定认知访谈的范围、挑选和培训进行认知访谈的研究人员、选取参与者样本、收集数据、听取汇报、分析新出现的结果，最终生成经过修订和验证的调查问卷问题。最后，我们提出了确保认知访谈质量的建议。
