Interviewers

1. Interviewers • Interviewers are critical to the collection of quality data. • Invest study resources in the hiring, training, and supervision of interviewers.

2. Interviewer Roles • Maximize the number of completed interviews • Keep refusals and early terminations to a minimum • Engage the subject in the interview • Communicate importance of study • Convey value of subject’s participation • Motivate respondents to participate thoughtfully and candidly • Help the subject understand their role • Administer the questionnaire • Ask questions in unbiased manner • Record answers correctly • Probe incomplete responses

3. Interviewer Abilities Abilities: capacities to perform the job • Speak clearly and use correct grammar in the language of the interview • Read in the language of the interview • Deliver written statements and questions naturally • Understand and follow written instructions • Write in the language of the interview • record verbatim responses accurately

4. Interviewer Abilities (cont.) • Interpret verbal and nonverbal cues in order to provide reinforcement or clarification • Regulate verbal and nonverbal behavior to avoid influencing responses

5. Interviewer Knowledge Knowledge: facts and principles that interviewers must learn during training • Understand the role of the interviewer • Understand why maintaining neutrality is important • Acquire sufficient information about the study to answer respondent questions • NOT study hypotheses • Principle of confidentiality and protecting identity of respondent

6. Interviewer Knowledge (cont.) • How to contact and enroll respondents • Correct procedures for asking questions • Procedures for recording answers • Rules for handling interpersonal aspects of the interview • Administrative procedures and forms • Study management forms • Reimbursement forms • Time sheets

7. Interviewer Skills Skills: capabilities to do specific tasks, acquired through training and practice • Initiate and maintain a conversation with a stranger • Techniques of minimizing refusal rates • Respond professionally to unexpected questions and situations • Remain neutral by keeping personal opinions out of the interview process • Motivate reluctant respondents to participate in the interview • Deliver the questionnaire in a flowing, conversational manner • Probe incomplete responses in an unbiased manner for more useful results

8. Interviewer Training • Written materials • Interviewer’s Manual • Background information on study topic • Lectures, presentations, discussions • Method of administration • Understanding the meaning of items • Coding instructions • Demonstration of technique • Discussion of interviewer concerns • Practice • Exercises • Role-playing • Code a taped interview • Practice interviews with pretend and real subjects

9. Interviewer Training (cont.) Conduct interviews with study subjects • Trainer conducts, trainee also codes • Compare and discuss recorded responses When trainee is coding correctly: • Trainee conducts, trainer also codes • Compare and discuss recorded responses

10. Interviewer Training (cont.) • Trainers • Teach how to conduct interview • Serve as role models • Must instill a concern for the importance of: • Respect for ethical concerns • Data quality • Attention to detail • Each part of the training should be conducted by the person most qualified in that area

11. Interviewer Training (cont.) • Importance of Interviewer Training • Don’t cut corners here • Critical to: • Response rate • Data quality • Allow time between training sessions • Time for reflection • Time to formulate questions

12. Interviewer Training (cont.) • Pay interviewers for training • Consider delayed payment schedule • I.e., partial payment during training, balance of payment after n interviews are completed • Training is expensive • Be sure trainees are screeened in advance • Plan training sessions well

13. Interviewer Training (cont.) • Interviewers must be fully trained before they can conduct interviews independently • There is no “learning period” in which they are allowed to come up to standards • It is possible to overtrain • Not worth the additional resources • Can be counterproductive - create uncertainty and insecurity rather than raising level of competence and confidence

14. Interviewer Training (cont.) • The investigator must demonstrate concern with the quality of all aspects of the study • Make the interviewers feel they are part of the team and invested in the success of the study • Don’t expect interviewers to pay attention to data quality if you don’t

15. Interviewer Supervision • Maintain and improve level of performance • Identify retraining needs • Invest time and resources in evaluating interviewer performance • Maintain morale • Concern for interviewer safety • Debrief after an upsetting interview • Detect fraud or misconduct

16. Interviewer Supervision (cont.) Supervise interviewer performance for: • Response rate • Monitor throughout course of study • Most important when interviewer is new • Early detection of decline is important • Track rates and patterns of • Refusals • Early termination • Missing data

17. Interviewer Supervision (cont.) • Quality of interviews • Appropriate introduction of study • Obtaining informed consent • Ability to establish rapport • Asking questions as written • Probing properly • Clearly coded response for each item

18. Interviewer Supervision (cont.) • Resources • Time spent • Productivity • Expenses • Mileage, phone bills

19. Interviewer Supervision (cont.) • Interviewers may identify problems with: • Study procedures • Data collection instruments • Relations with study site • Interviewers often have excellent suggestions for resolving problems

20. Interviewer Supervision (cont.) • Conduct random checks with study subjects to determine: • Whether interview took place • Duration of interview • Whether all sections of interview, particularly long or difficult sections, were asked • Ask subject if they remember being asked about particular questions, especially those that might be avoided by the interviewer • Impression of interviewer • Inform interviewers that you will be conducting these checks and the reason for them

21. Maintaining Staff • Jobs can be demanding, stressful and/or tedious • Make sure staff needs are met • Maintain morale • Incremental pay scale over time • Celebrate events • E.g., completion of particular study goals • E.g., staff birthdays • Flexible scheduling

22. Maintaining Staff (cont.) • High morale results in: • Lower turnover • Lower costs (recruiting, training) • Higher data quality • Let staff know you understand they are fallible • Better for them to reveal their mistakes • Allows you to deal with consequences • Opportunity for retraining

23. Ethical Obligations to Study Staff • Do not put staff in the position of being deceptive, misleading, or inaccurate • Interviewers should have sufficient and accurate information to give subjects • Interviewers should not be asked to misrepresent information about response rate or study data

24. Ethical Obligations to Interviewers (cont.) • Interviewer safety • Don’t send interviewers into an unsafe situation • Be sensitive to racial and ethnic issues, particularly in context of recent events in your study area • Inform interviewers explicitly that it is not a job requirement to go somewhere under circumstances that they feel are unsafe

25. Ethical Obligations to Interviewers(cont.) Maximize safety by: • Providing transportation or escorts • Assigning interviewers appropriately • Race and sex • Time of day • Train on ways to increase safety and reduce risk • Hire interviewers who are indigenous to the neighborhood • Have interviewers inform supervisor of dangerous situations or illegal behaviors

26. Longitudinal Studies • Collect information that will help locate subject: • Date of birth • Social Security Number • Expected location at follow-up • Names and addresses of >1 person who will know subject’s whereabouts • At each wave of data collection ask: • Whether contact information has changed • Plans for relocation • Maintain interim contact if time to next data collection is long and/or population is mobile • E.g., Birthday and holiday cards with return postcard for corrections

27. Longitudinal Studies (cont.) • Use “Do Not Forward: Address Correction Requested” • Re-mail card to updated address • Use public records and other sources • Computerized data bases • Liaison to Income Maintenance Division • Armed Forces Base Locator Services • Death Records • Provide updated consents to residential child welfare settings • Develop liaisons with adult correctional system; find central registries • Use of agencies that track persons • Check which data bases they use • Check what information they need to be successful

28. Data Quality • The primary goal of study management is high quality data • Ensuring high data quality should be incorporated into all aspects of study management • This lecture described some features of field operations for achieving this goal • Aspects of data quality that should addressed, but are beyond the scope of this lecture, appear on next slide

29. Data Quality (cont.) • Design of data collection instruments • Selection and/or construction of measures • Item order • Length of interview • Formatting of instrument • Editing and Coding Interviews • Levels of edits • Interviewer - immediately after interview • Supervisor – check for completeness, appropriate skip patterns • Field Coordinator • Consensus coding • Document coding decisions in Interviewer’s Manual • Preparation of instruments for data entry • Data entry • Data cleaning • Data management • Documentation and storage of data and forms

30. Relations with Field Sites • Form alliance with agencies and organizations that control access to respondents • Convince them of value of your study • Negotiate with them to obtain what you require: • Personnel • Space • Time frame

31. Relations with Field Sites (cont.) • Determine the quality and availability of data for selecting sample or obtaining study measures • Data readily available or archived • Completeness of data • Accuracy of data • Recency of information • Additional approval needed • Parents • other agency or branch of government • Format of records • Hardcopy • Electronic • Software needed

32. Relations with Field Sites (cont.) • Start process early • Can be very time-consuming • Be sure to specify all details to avoid misunderstanding later on • IRB application • Maintain alliance with these individuals and organizations • Investigator should be available to intervene when there is a problem • For large study or small problem, field coordinator can perform some of these functions

33. Relations With Larger Community • Decide if and how to inform the community at large • Meet with influential leaders or community boards • Media • May want to keep a low profile in some communities and for some studies

34. Sources • Stouthamer-Loeber, M., & van Kammen, W. B. (1995). Data Collection and Management. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. • Marinez, Y. N., McMahan, C. A., Barnwell, G. M., & Wigodsky, H. S. (1984). Ensuring data quality in medical research through an integrated data management system. Statistics in Medicine, 3, 101-111. • Fowler, Floyd, J., Jr. (1993). Survey Research Methods. Sage Publications, pages 123-131. • Sage Survey Kit #1: chapter 4 • Sage Survey Kit #4: pages 18-24 • Sage Survey Kit #4: pages 109-146

35. THE END