Wang Shirlene D, Hatzinger Lori, Morales Jeremy, Hewus Micaela, Intille Stephen, Dunton Genevieve F
Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States.
Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States.
JMIR Form Res. 2024 Aug 2;8:e52165. doi: 10.2196/52165.
Intensive longitudinal data (ILD) collection methods have gained popularity in social and behavioral research as a tool to better understand behavior and experiences over time with reduced recall bias. Engaging participants in these studies over multiple months and ensuring high data quality are crucial but challenging due to the potential burden of repeated measurements. It is suspected that participants may engage in inattentive responding (IR) behavior to combat burden, but the processes underlying this behavior are unclear as previous studies have focused on the barriers to compliance rather than the barriers to providing high-quality data.
This study aims to broaden researchers' knowledge about IR during ILD studies using qualitative analysis and uncover the underlying IR processes to aid future hypothesis generation.
We explored the process of IR by conducting semistructured qualitative exit interviews with 31 young adult participants (aged 18-29 years) who completed a 12-month ILD health behavior study with daily evening smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys and 4-day waves of hourly EMA surveys. The interviews assessed participants' motivations, the impact of time-varying contexts, changes in motivation and response patterns over time, and perceptions of attention check questions (ACQs) to understand participants' response patterns and potential factors leading to IR.
Thematic analysis revealed 5 overarching themes on factors that influence participant engagement: (1) friends and family also had to tolerate the frequent surveys, (2) participants tried to respond to surveys quickly, (3) the repetitive nature of surveys led to neutral responses, (4) ACQs within the surveys helped to combat overly consistent response patterns, and (5) different motivations for answering the surveys may have led to different levels of data quality.
This study aimed to examine participants' perceptions of the quality of data provided in an ILD study to contribute to the field's understanding of engagement. These findings provide insights into the complex process of IR and participant engagement in ILD studies with EMA. The study identified 5 factors influencing IR that could guide future research to improve EMA survey design. The identified themes offer practical implications for researchers and study designers, including the importance of considering social context, the consideration of dynamic motivations, and the potential benefit of including ACQs as a technique to reduce IR and leveraging the intrinsic motivators of participants. By incorporating these insights, researchers might maximize the scientific value of their multimonth ILD studies through better data collection protocols.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): RR2-10.2196/36666.
密集纵向数据（ILD）收集方法在社会和行为研究中越来越受欢迎，作为一种工具，它能在减少回忆偏差的情况下更好地理解行为和经历随时间的变化。让参与者参与这些长达数月的研究并确保高数据质量至关重要，但由于重复测量可能带来负担，这具有挑战性。据推测，参与者可能会采取注意力不集中的应答（IR）行为来应对负担，但这种行为背后的过程尚不清楚，因为以往研究侧重于依从性障碍而非提供高质量数据的障碍。
本研究旨在通过定性分析拓宽研究人员对ILD研究中IR的认识，并揭示潜在的IR过程，以帮助未来生成假设。
我们通过对31名年轻成年参与者（年龄在18 - 29岁之间）进行半结构化定性退出访谈，探讨了IR过程。这些参与者完成了一项为期12个月的ILD健康行为研究，该研究包括每日晚间基于智能手机的生态瞬时评估（EMA）调查以及每4天一次的每小时EMA调查。访谈评估了参与者的动机、随时间变化的情境的影响、动机和应答模式随时间的变化，以及对注意力检查问题（ACQ）的看法，以了解参与者的应答模式和导致IR的潜在因素。
主题分析揭示了影响参与者参与度的5个总体主题：（1）朋友和家人也必须忍受频繁的调查；（2）参与者试图快速回复调查；（3）调查的重复性导致中性应答；（4）调查中的ACQ有助于对抗过度一致的应答模式；（5）回答调查的不同动机可能导致不同水平的数据质量。
本研究旨在检验参与者对ILD研究中提供的数据质量的看法，以促进该领域对参与度的理解。这些发现为IR以及参与者在使用EMA的ILD研究中的参与度这一复杂过程提供了见解。该研究确定了影响IR的5个因素，可指导未来研究改进EMA调查设计。所确定的主题为研究人员和研究设计者提供了实际启示，包括考虑社会背景的重要性、动态动机的考量，以及将ACQ作为一种减少IR并利用参与者内在动机的技术的潜在益处。通过纳入这些见解，研究人员可能通过更好的数据收集方案最大化其数月ILD研究的科学价值。
国际注册报告识别码（IRRID）：RR2 - 10.2196/36666。
