Covert observation in practice: lessons from the evaluation of the prohibition of smoking in public places in Scotland.
BACKGROUND
A ban on smoking in wholly or substantially enclosed public places has been in place in Scotland since 26th March 2006. The impact of this legislation is currently being evaluated in seven studies, three of which involve direct observation of smoking in bars and other enclosed public places. While the ethical issues around covert observation have been widely discussed there is little practical guidance on the conduct of such research. A workshop was therefore convened to identify practical lessons learned so far from the Scottish evaluation.


METHODS
We convened a workshop involving researchers from the three studies which used direct observation. In addition, one of the fieldwork managers collected written feedback on the fieldwork, identifying problems that arose in the field and some solutions.


RESULTS
There were four main themes identified: (i) the difficulty of achieving and maintaining concealment; (ii) the experience of being an observer; (iii) the risk of bias in the observations and (iv) issues around training and recruitment. These are discussed.


CONCLUSIONS
Collecting covert observational data poses unique practical challenges, in particular in relation to the health and safety of the researcher. The findings and solutions presented in this paper will be of value to researchers designing similar studies.
Petticrew
Mark
M
MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow, UK. mark@msoc.mrc.gla.ac.uk
Semple
Sean
S
Hilton
Shona
S
Creely
Kaen S
KS
Eadie
Douglas
D
Ritchie
Deborah
D
Ferrell
Catherine
C
Christopher
Yvette
Y
Hurley
Fintan
F
D016902:Air Pollution, Indoor / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000517:prevention & control; D015982:Bias; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D019370:Observation / Q000379:methods*; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011633:Public Facilities / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011634:Public Health / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology; D012606:Scotland / Q000453:epidemiology; D012907:Smoking / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention
Ethics Behav. 2005;15(3):259-69
16523562
Prev Med. 2004 May;38 Suppl:S78-87
15072862
Nicotine Tob Res. 2004 Jun;6(3):427-37
15203776
Int J Addict. 1986 Nov;21(11):1173-82
3793301
Beitr Sexualforsch. 1974;54(0):1-138
4466485
Am J Infect Control. 2006 Apr;34(3):95-9
16630970
J Appl Behav Anal. 1982 Winter;15(4):573-7
7153192
Int J Nurs Stud. 1992 May;29(2):213-23
1612839
Tob Control. 2007 Apr;16(2):127-32
17400951
JAMA. 1989 Aug 11;262(6):799-802
2746836
Br J Sociol. 1999 Jun;50(2):331-43
15260029
JAMA. 1990 Sep 26;264(12):1565-9
2395198
Addict Behav. 1985;10(4):351-5
3937446
J Public Health (Oxf). 2006 Mar;28(1):24-30
16488910
Int J Epidemiol. 2007 Feb;36(1):155-6
17229833
Health Values. 1978 Jul-Aug;2(4):180-5
10237497
Wisc Sociol. 1977 Spring-Summer;14(2-3):87-97
11650450
J Stud Alcohol. 2000 Nov;61(6):787-93
11188483
J Occup Med. 1990 Jan;32(1):16-23
2324839
Ann Occup Hyg. 2006 Oct;50(7):693-704
16840437
J Fam Plann Reprod Health Care. 2005 Oct;31(4):285-7
16274550