Ann M Fehily PhD RD RNutr and A P Johns BSc CEng MIET FIAP
When developing a questionnaire, there are a large number of factors that need to be considered. These are listed in the table below. It is important that adequate consideration is given to all of these during the design of the questionnaire. If not, you may not be able to use data as originally intended, or you may spend many extra weeks processing data from poorly designed forms with ill-considered coding schemes.
Click on an item in the table below to find out more about that topic.
| Factors to be Considered when Developing a Questionnaire | Questions to be addressed |
| The nutrient(s) to be assessed | Which nutrients are to be calculated from the questionnaire? Which foods are sources of those nutrients? |
| Food portion sizes | What portion size(s) will be used for each foodstuff? |
| Method of administration | Is the questionnaire to be self-administered or interviewer-administered? |
| Media to be used | Are data to be collected using a paper form, computer-based interview or web-based interview? |
| Location of completion | Is the questionnaire to be completed at home, in a clinic or by telephone? |
| Question format | Should questions be open or closed format? |
| Length of questionnaire | Is the questionnaire too long, such that the response rate for the survey may be adversely affected? |
| Sequence of questions. Wording of questions. | Will subjects be able to understand and answer the questions satisfactorily? |
| Coding of data | How will responses be coded for computer processing? |
| Range and compatibility checks on data | How will unlikely and contradictory responses be detected and dealt with? |
| Calculation of nutrient intakes | How will food consumption responses be converted to nutrient intakes? |
| Processing of missing values | If some responses are missing, how will affected questionnaires be handled? |
| Pilot study | How will you ensure that the questionnaire can be completed satisfactorily and in a reasonable time? |
| Validation of intake data | How well does the questionnaire assess usual intake of the foods and nutrient(s) of interest? |
Q-Builder is a questionnaire development tool. It can be used to develop any type of questionnaire, including food intake questionnaires, collect data and calculate nutrient intakes.
