Verbrugge L M
Med Care. 1980 Jan;18(1):73-95. doi: 10.1097/00005650-198001000-00006.
A health diary is a prospective procedure to obtain reports of morbidity (illness and injury), disability and health actions. Health diaries have been used for 3 purposes: in methodologic studies to compare reporting levels for retrospective and prospective procedures; as memory aids to improve recall of health events in a later, retrospective interview; and as a primary data source. This article presents an inventory and description of studies which have used health diaries. It reviews evidence from the studies on the following topics: 1) levels of reporting compared to retrospective interviews; 2) recall error; 3) validity of health reports; 4) value of diary data for a broad view of symptoms and health behavior, for individual-level analysis and for studies of health dynamics; 5) respondent cooperation; 6) conditioning effects (sensitization and fatigue); 7) quality of diary data; 8) survey costs; 9) complexity of data collection and processing; and 10) complexity of data analysis. Overall health diaries have well-documented advantages with respect to content--the rich information they provide about individual health. High respondent cooperation and high-quality data can be achieved if staff members devote ample time and energy to retaining diary-keepers and monitoring their records. Researchers must weight the advantages of health diary information against the money costs, staff activities, and statistical computing resources necessary to collect and analyze it.
健康日记是一种获取发病率（疾病和伤害）、残疾情况及健康行为报告的前瞻性方法。健康日记有三个用途：用于方法学研究，比较回顾性和前瞻性方法的报告水平；作为记忆辅助工具，以改善在后续回顾性访谈中对健康事件的回忆；以及作为主要数据源。本文介绍了使用健康日记的研究的清单和描述。它回顾了这些研究在以下主题上的证据：1）与回顾性访谈相比的报告水平；2）回忆误差；3）健康报告的有效性；4）日记数据对于全面了解症状和健康行为、个体层面分析以及健康动态研究的价值；5）受访者的合作情况；6）条件效应（致敏和疲劳）；7）日记数据的质量；8）调查成本；9）数据收集和处理的复杂性；以及10）数据分析的复杂性。总体而言，健康日记在内容方面有充分记录的优势——它们提供了关于个人健康的丰富信息。如果工作人员投入足够的时间和精力来留住记日记的人并监测他们的记录，就可以实现高受访者合作率和高质量数据。研究人员必须权衡健康日记信息的优势与收集和分析这些信息所需的资金成本、工作人员活动以及统计计算资源。
