Evaluation of general practice care by chronically ill patients: effect of the method of administration.
BACKGROUND
Although the patient survey has become a popular method for learning about patients' views and experiences, little attention has been paid to the validity and feasibility of different survey methods.


OBJECTIVE
A study was undertaken to compare handing out written questionnaires to chronically ill patients who consecutively visited the general practice with mailing questionnaires to chronically ill patients who were sampled from the patient register.


METHODS
Patient surveys were performed in eight general practices in The Netherlands, applying both methods of administering the questionnaire to patients in each practice (n = 345).


RESULTS
The response rate was 63% in the mail survey and 72% in the hand-distributed survey. The sample composition was almost equal, except that patients in the hand-distributed survey more often reported having 'a different chronic disease.' The item-response for each aspect of care was similar in both methods of administration.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients in the mail survey tended to use the extreme categories on the scale for certain aspects of care more often than patients in the hand-distributed survey, but the overall trend was not significant.
Wensing
M
M
Centre for Quality of Care Research (WOK), University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Grol
R
R
Smits
A
A
Van Montfort
P
P
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012494:Sampling Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires