Design and development of objective questionnaires

• Main Author: Praveen K Nirmalan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2021-01-01
• Series: Kerala Journal of Ophthalmology
• Subjects: construct; measurement; questionnaire development; scale development; test
• Online Access: http://www.kjophthal.com/article.asp?issn=0976-6677;year=2021;volume=33;issue=2;spage=139;epage=141;aulast=Nirmalan

Measurements are a fundamental concept in healthcare. Questionnaires are integral to healthcare research and provide healthcare practitioners with objective tools for measurement of several aspects of health care. Questionnaires are developed based on certain contexts and validated for further use in larger populations. The primary goal of questionnaires is to provide valid measures of underlying constructs. The use of inappropriate questionnaires or poorly designed questionnaires affects the quality of data collected and the validity of the study. In this manuscript, we describe issues related to the design and development of questionnaires. These include conceptualization of target constructs and development of item pools, the basic principles of writing the items, formats and derivative versions of questionnaires, and translations. In the second part of this series, we will describe the concepts and process for validation of questionnaires.