Adapting / Customizing Questionnaires

Customization No single model questionnaire can represent all human experience around the globe Customization will have to be made However, lesson learned: Adapting too freely may cause production of low quality, incomparable data

Customize, But retain international comparability in data you collect Only to reflect country-specific categories, phenomena

Adapting / Customizing Questionnaires Decide on your indicators Identify modules which collect necessary data on numerators and denominators of your indicators Make sure you collect information on all indicators appropriately and that a decision to take out one module does not affect collection of data on another indicator

Adapting / Customizing Questionnaires Retain all core modules if possible Assess whether you are affected by issues in additional modules and decide to include/exclude them Optional modules – Assess if it is an issue, if there is interest

Adapting / Customizing Questionnaires Assess the length of questionnaires – do not overdo it Consider the flow, the rhythm of the interview, do not produce a form Remember that the inclusion/exclusion of one module might influence another module, or the rhythm of the interview

Some Rules Retain question numbers Do not assign new numbers to questions already in model questionnaire If new questions are included, assign them new numbers – if necessary, use A, B, C etc, such as HA15A, HA15B to be inserted between HA15 and HA16 Retain Latin characters

Some Rules Understand what response categories are attempting to capture Country-specific response categories may be already there, under a different name A new category should not take up the code (number or letter) of those in the model questionnaires

Some Rules Be cautious about changing the ordering of modules If not absolutely necessary, do not change ordering of modules or questions Do not change the definition of the eligible group, e.g. age group Change can only be to capture a wider group, e.g. asking questions about age group 2-14 rather than 2-9