Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolf Street., Suite E8620, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Makerere University School of Public Health, Kampala, Uganda.
Popul Health Metr. 2021 Jun 28;19(1):32. doi: 10.1186/s12963-021-00258-z.
This is the first study to examine the costs of conducting a mobile phone survey (MPS) through interactive voice response (IVR) to collect information on risk factors for noncommunicable diseases (NCD) in three low- and middle-income countries (LMIC); Bangladesh, Colombia, and Uganda.
This is a micro-costing study conducted from the perspective of the payer/funder with a 1-year horizon. The study evaluates the fixed costs and variable costs of implementing one nationally representative MPS for NCD risk factors of the adult population. In this costing study, we estimated the sample size of calls required to achieve a population-representative survey and associated incentives. Cost inputs were obtained from direct economic costs incurred by a central study team, from country-specific collaborators, and from platform developers who participated in the deployment of these MPS during 2017. Costs were reported in US dollars (USD). A sensitivity analysis was conducted assessing different scenarios of pricing and incentive strategies. Also, costs were calculated for a survey deployed targeting only adults younger than 45 years.
We estimated the fixed costs ranging between $47,000 USD and $74,000 USD. Variable costs were found to be between $32,000 USD and $129,000 USD per nationally representative survey. The main cost driver was the number of calls required to meet the sample size, and its variability largely depends on the extent of mobile phone coverage and access in the country. Therefore, a larger number of calls were estimated to survey specific harder-to-reach sub-populations.
Mobile phone surveys have the potential to be a relatively less expensive and timely method of collecting survey information than face-to-face surveys, allowing decision-makers to deploy survey-based monitoring or evaluation programs more frequently than it would be possible having only face-to-face contact. The main driver of variable costs is survey time, and most of the variability across countries is attributable to the sampling differences associated to reaching out to population subgroups with low mobile phone ownership or access.
本研究首次考察了在孟加拉国、哥伦比亚和乌干达这三个中低收入国家（LMIC），通过互动语音应答（IVR）进行手机调查（MPS）以收集非传染性疾病（NCD）风险因素信息的成本。
这是一项从支付者/资助者角度进行的微观成本研究，时间跨度为 1 年。该研究评估了实施全国代表性成人 NCD 风险因素 MPS 的固定成本和可变成本。在这项成本研究中，我们估计了实现人群代表性调查所需的电话样本量以及相关激励措施。成本投入来自中央研究团队、特定国家的合作者以及参与这些 MPS 部署的平台开发商的直接经济成本。成本以美元（USD）报告。进行了敏感性分析，以评估不同的定价和激励策略方案。此外，还针对仅针对 45 岁以下成年人的调查进行了成本计算。
我们估计固定成本在 47,000 美元至 74,000 美元之间。可变成本在全国代表性调查中发现介于 32,000 美元至 129,000 美元之间。主要成本驱动因素是满足样本量所需的通话次数，其可变性在很大程度上取决于该国的移动电话覆盖范围和接入程度。因此，为了调查特定的更难接触到的亚人群，预计需要进行更多的通话。
与面对面调查相比，手机调查具有成本相对较低且时效性强的潜力，可以使决策者更频繁地部署基于调查的监测或评估计划，而不仅仅是面对面接触。可变成本的主要驱动因素是调查时间，而各国之间的大部分差异都归因于与低移动电话拥有率或接入率的人群群体联系的抽样差异。
