He. Drummond et al., ELECTRONIC QUALITY-OF-LIFE QUESTIONNAIRES - A COMPARISON OF PEN-BASEDELECTRONIC QUESTIONNAIRES WITH CONVENTIONAL PAPER IN A GASTROINTESTINAL STUDY, Quality of life research, 4(1), 1995, pp. 21-26
The use of pen-based electronic questionnaires and conventional paper
questionnaires was compared in a randomized crossover study. Forty-six
patients, aged 17-81 years, suffering from gastrointestinal disorders
, initially filled in a paper quality of life questionnaire for famili
arization purposes, then on two subsequent visits completed electronic
and paper questionnaires in randomized order, At the last visit they
completed a preference survey. The results showed a high degree of acc
eptability of the electronic questionnaire, with 57% of patient prefer
ring electronic and 13% preferring paper, while the remaining 30% expr
essed no preference, Neither age, gender nor familiarity with technolo
gy showed any marked association with patients' preferences. All patie
nts found both paper and electronic questionnaires easy to use. Data w
ere more complete on the electronic questionnaire (100%) than on the p
aper (99.1%). Data handling procedures were greatly simplified. These
results show that major benefits in completeness of data, speed of dat
a flow, and data handling workload can be obtained from the use of pen
-based electronic questionnaires.