What is a Survey ?

A Survey collects information

Is a Census from all the population
Is a Poll if for political information
Is a Sample Survey if from just a sample
of a population

Conditions for a Survey

Answer the Objectives

Be Unbiased, Accurate
Be Generalizable
Be Ethical
Be Economical

Before a Survey

Define the Questions to be answer.

Define the Sampling strategy.
Design and Test the Questionnaire.
Train the field workers.
Define the technique for crossvalidation.
Define the final Analysis.

During the Survey

- Verify and crossvalidate the Questionnaire
- Check Time table and Budget

After the Survey

- Crosscheck again all the data
- Perform the main analysis
- Perform any exploratory data analysis.

The Question
The first task is to clearly and
concisely define the Main
Question of interest as well as
the Target Population of the
study.

Sampling Unit
The individual
A family
A group, i.e. a class.

Sampling Frame
Existing listing
New listing

Define the Precision or Tolerated error

of the estimates : 1% , 5%.
Are there any Nuisance factor to be
accounted for, which ones are important?

Stratification
Sample size proportional to strata size
Equal sample sizes from all strata
Sample size inversely proportional to
strata variability.

Multiple Steps Sampling

Sampling
Units

2nd Units
Big Units

Questionnaire
Short and Concise
Open Questions
Multiple choice
Yes/No

Internal Validity
How to check if the subject
answers truthfully?
- Ask the same question twice?
Marital status
Spouse age
- Check frequency versus known data

External validity
Are the appropriate questions asked?
Are the questions understandable by
all the subjects in the sample.

Study of Trends
Cohort
Panel

same

same

same
same
new

new

Interviewers in Follow
Up Studies
Preferably be the same.
If not the training must be the same.
They must be comparable.

Preparing for Validation

Lists of valid responses for each question.
Define code for: Missing values.

Not applicable.

Do not know.
Automatically set the Not applicable
based on some previous question.

Definition of the Analysis

Specific Objective 1
- Test to answer specific objective 1.
Specific Objective 2
- Test to answer specific objective 2.
Secondary objectives
- Test to investigate secondary objectives.
Exploratory Data Analysis.

During the Survey

Collect questionnaires daily.
Check yesterday questionnaires for
missing or invalid answers.
Re-interview invalid questionnaires

The Time Table

The often forgotten tasks.
Is the number of answered questionnaires
according to the predicted for this date?.
Is more time needed to fill up the
required number of questionnaires?
Are more interviewers needed to
complete the task in time?

The Interim View

Crosstabulate the descriptor variables.
i.e. age,
gender, occupation, etc.
Are they similar to the known ( or assumed)
distribution in the population?
Are we getting a representative or a biased sample?.
Do we need more advertising of the study in some
sectors of the population?

After the Survey

Check for outliers in all variables,
both singly and in logical pairs.
Are the distributions and
scattergrams plausible ?
Decide whether to impute or to
eliminate the clear mistakes.

Statistical Analysis
Main Analysis
Description of the sample
Predefined Main Statistical analysis
Statistical significance of results
Exploratory Analysis
Describe test / procedure used
Report results

The Report

List of Objectives.
Objectives achieved.
Sample size estimated.
Response rate in the sample.
Main Statistical Analysis.
Results with significance or Confidence Interval of estimators.
Statistical Power of the tests performed.
Results of the Exploratory Data Analysis

Conclusions
What was achieved.
Did the main Analysis agree with
predictions and if not why?
Interpretation of the results of the main
Analysis.
Were any new hypothesis generated by
the EDA.
Interpretation of the findings by the
EDA.
Ideas for new research.