title: The relative costs and benefits of telephone interviews versus self-administered diaries for daily data collection.
abstract: This article compares two methods of collecting daily data: self-administered diaries and telephone interviews. Study participants included 44 men and 56 women between the ages of 16 and 35 who participated in a larger study of drinking, drug use, and sexual activity. Participants were randomly assigned to either the written diary or the telephone interview conditions; question wording and format were identical in both conditions. Daily data were collected for a period of 8 weeks. Results indicate that although telephone interviews resulted in slightly more missed days of data collection, they generally yielded less item-level missing data, produced cleaner data and therefore were less costly to process, and were as palatable to participants as self-administered diaries. Except for reports of drinking and vegetable consumption, telephone and diary conditions did not differ in the amount of behavior reported; more drinking and vegetable consumption were reported with telephone interviews, however. Telephone interviews also imposed considerably higher overall personnel costs.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, University of Washington, USA.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Hoppe
authors.forename: M R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Gillmore
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Valadez
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Civic
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hartway
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Morrison
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003625:Data Collection / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods*; D015930:Diet Records; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011996:Records; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013689:Telephone