title: The use of mobile phones as a data collection tool: a report from a household survey in South Africa.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To investigate the feasibility, the ease of implementation, and the extent to which community health workers with little experience of data collection could be trained and successfully supervised to collect data using mobile phones in a large baseline survey
  
  
  METHODS
  A web-based system was developed to allow electronic surveys or questionnaires to be designed on a word processor, sent to, and conducted on standard entry level mobile phones.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The web-based interface permitted comprehensive daily real-time supervision of CHW performance, with no data loss. The system permitted the early detection of data fabrication in combination with real-time quality control and data collector supervision.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The benefits of mobile technology, combined with the improvement that mobile phones offer over PDA's in terms of data loss and uploading difficulties, make mobile phones a feasible method of data collection that needs to be further explored.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa. markt@sun.ac.za
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tomlinson
authors.forename: Wesley
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Solomon
authors.forename: Yages
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Tanya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Doherty
authors.forename: Mickey
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chopra
authors.forename: Petrida
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ijumba
authors.forename: Alexander C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jackson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D040421:Cell Phone; D003150:Community Health Workers / Q000193:education; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008875:Middle Aged; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013019:South Africa; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult