Ukuhor Hyacinth O
Department of Public Health, Saudi Electronic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Res Theory Nurs Pract. 2021 Sep 13. doi: 10.1891/RTNP-D-20-00160.
Worldwide, there is a remarkable increase in Internet use, with a current penetration rate of 62%. This widespread Internet use and the global coronavirus disease (COVID-19) preventive measures provide opportunities for data collection using the Internet in healthcare research. No recent studies have been conducted regarding the methodological issues of asynchronous Internet research that employed opened-ended questions to explore providers' and patients' experiences.
This study utilizes prior research to explore methodological issues that affect online research using open-ended questions to obtain health data.
The electronic databases searched were PubMed, CINAHL, and full-text Ovid. Reference lists and the were manually searched. The search strategy was based on the PRISMA flow diagram. Articles published between January 2003 and May 2020 were searched. Inclusion criteria were asynchronous online researcher-led studies that used open-ended questions to explore healthcare issues. Methodological issues were extracted from the selected studies.
The evidence suggests that factors such as technical/website study/survey design issues, smartphone study applications, use of reminders, incentives, overrecruiting participants, using a combination of asynchronous and synchronous methods, trustworthiness, ethical and security issues affect the quality of data obtained in online health research.
Asynchronous online research methods with open-ended questions could be used to collect high-quality data from patients, healthcare providers, and other participants in self-isolation, quarantine, and in diverse locations. However, researchers should be aware of the identified methodological issues. Future research could explore methodological issues and data quality in combined asynchronous and synchronous data collection methods.
在全球范围内，互联网使用量显著增加，目前的普及率为62%。这种广泛的互联网使用以及全球冠状病毒病（COVID-19）预防措施为医疗保健研究中利用互联网进行数据收集提供了机会。目前尚无关于采用开放式问题来探索提供者和患者体验的异步互联网研究方法学问题的近期研究。
本研究利用先前的研究来探索影响使用开放式问题获取健康数据的在线研究的方法学问题。
检索的电子数据库有PubMed、CINAHL和Ovid全文数据库。对参考文献列表和灰色文献进行了手工检索。检索策略基于PRISMA流程图。检索了2003年1月至2020年5月发表的文章。纳入标准为异步在线研究者主导的研究，这些研究使用开放式问题来探索医疗保健问题。从选定的研究中提取方法学问题。
证据表明，技术/网站研究/调查设计问题、智能手机研究应用程序、提醒的使用、激励措施、过度招募参与者、异步和同步方法的结合使用、可信度、伦理和安全问题等因素会影响在线健康研究中获得的数据质量。
采用开放式问题的异步在线研究方法可用于从患者、医疗保健提供者以及处于自我隔离、检疫状态的其他参与者和不同地点的人员中收集高质量数据。然而，研究人员应意识到已确定的方法学问题。未来的研究可以探索异步和同步数据收集方法结合中的方法学问题和数据质量。
