A Short Review on the Usage of Online Surveys Among Health Professionals

• Autor(es): Bustos, D ; Teixeira, T ; Guedes, J. C. ; João Santos Baptista ; Vaz, M
• Data: 2022
• Identificador Persistente: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/165836
• Origem: Repositório Aberto da Universidade do Porto
• Tipo de Documento: Livro
• Idioma: Inglês

Descrição

Background: Surveys are an established tool within health services, allowing to recruit large and diverse cross-sections of the population and offer rapid data collection and cost-effectiveness. Various methods for conducting surveys exist, being the web-based method the one with increasing applicability. Despite its advantages, specific concerns might affect their validity and, therefore, require special attention. Objective: To characterise the methods and good practices of online surveys applied explicitly to health professionals. Method: The databases Scopus and PubMed were searched throughout the last five years and were screened in parallel by to two authors. Studies addressing the application of web-based surveys among health professionals were selected and, data regarding survey characteristics, response rates and applied methodologies were extracted. Results and discussion: Outcomes evidenced that the use of web surveys has increased significantly. Email is the most used method for disseminating questionnaires, with Google Forms and Survey Monkey as the most preferred platforms. As for the methodology applied for the development of the questionnaires, the most mentioned was CHERRIES. Conclusion: The use of online questionnaires proved to be a facilitator in collecting responses. However, some resistance from participants remains. This resistance may be associated with the samples difficulty using online platforms or its unavailability to answer the questionnaires. Application: This review found limited but helpful information regarding the procedures and good practices to follow when applying and presenting surveys. It can be used as a reference for future studies for an overall perspective on the up-to-date methodologies and remaining challenges when conducting these surveys. (c) 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.