Question

a short telephone survey to find out the demographic characteristics of people in the catchment of a local community health service, and distinguish between those who actually use the service and those who do not.

Answer 1

Answer

Some of the sources for contacting the source population can be the telephone directory for the locality, census data, data from nearby hospitals or similar health centres, data from nearby retail stores etc.

The telephone directory is the best source as the locality can be selected and phone numbers can also be obtained for the survey.

Once population source is identified, the sample needs to be selected from it. This can be done through random sampling method which ensures there is no bias in sampling, intentional or unintentional.

The cons of this method of sampling are that it relies on entire population information being available which may not hold true in real world. Also, the random sampling does not account for special information or requirements. For example, the random sampling may fail to pick a particular start of the population completely, leading to misleading results (International Journal of Applied Research, 2017).

Once the population information is sourced and sample is selected, say n=30 participants. The next step is to administer the below survey questionnaire to various participants and extract the required information. Once the exercise is complete, the results and output can be presented in a spread sheet format for easier analysis of the data collated.

For example, if the requirement is to see the section of sample that has not availed health services versus those that have availed the services, it can be easily done by using filter or pivot table using question number six as the base for the same. Similarly, each question can be analysed to arrive at results and conclusions. For qualitative data, it can be broken down to most common responses so as to streamline the data for purpose of analysis.

Pls complete the following questionnaire by putting an ‘X’ against correct option:

Gender

Male
Female
Others

Age

< 18 years
19 – 25 years
26 – 35 years
36 – 50 years
>50 years

2 Do you suffer from any known disease? If yes, pls mention disease name.

Yes
No

Disease Name: __________________________________________

3. Have you heard of the community health service centre?

Yes
No

Are you enrolled for local community health survey?

Yes
No
Don’t know

Have you used the health services?

Yes
No
Don’t know

How many times have you used the services during last 6 months?

Never
Once
Twice
Thrice or more

How was the experience when you used the services, if applicable?

Very Good
Good
Neutral
Bad
Very Bad

Will you be willing to use these health services again? Why or why not? (pls use the empty space to write the response to second part)

Yes
No

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Any recommendations to improve the services at the centre?