Examination of the demographic representativeness of a cross-sectional mobile phone survey in collecting health data in Colombia using random digit dialling

Deivis Nicolas Guzman-Tordecilla; Andres I Vecino-Ortiz; Angélica Torres-Quintero; Camila Solorzano-Barrera; Joseph Ali; Rolando Enrique Peñaloza-Quintero; Saifuddin Ahmed; George W Pariyo; Vidhi Maniar; Dustin G Gibson

doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2023-073647

Examination of the demographic representativeness of a cross-sectional mobile phone survey in collecting health data in Colombia using random digit dialling

BMJ Open. 2023 Jun 16;13(6):e073647. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-073647.

Affiliations

¹ Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA deivy-gt@hotmail.com.
² Institute of Public Health, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia.
³ Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
⁴ Berman Institute of Bioethics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
⁵ Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
⁶ International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Abstract

Objectives: As mobile phone ownership becomes more widespread in low-income and middle-income countries, mobile phone surveys (MPSs) present an opportunity to collect data on health more cost-effectively. However, selectivity and coverage biases in MPS are concerns, and there is limited information about the population-level representativeness of these surveys compared with household surveys. This study aims at comparing the sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents of an MPS on non-communicable disease risk factors to a household survey in Colombia.

Design: Cross-sectional study. We used a random digit dialling method to select the samples for calling mobile phone numbers. The survey was conducted using two modalities: computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATIs) and interactive voice response (IVR). The participants were assigned randomly to one of the survey modalities based on a targeted sampling quota stratified by age and sex. The Quality-of-Life Survey (ECV), a nationally representative survey conducted in the same year of the MPS, was used as a reference to compare the sample distributions by sociodemographic characteristics of the MPS data. Univariate and bivariate analyses were performed to evaluate the population representativeness between the ECV and the MPSs.

Setting: The study was conducted in Colombia in 2021.

Participants: Population at least 18 years old with a mobile phone.

Results: We completed 1926 and 2983 interviews for CATI and IVR, respectively. We found that the MPS data have a similar (within 10% points) age-sex data distribution compared with the ECV dataset for some subpopulations, mainly for young populations, people with none/primary and secondary education levels, and people who live in urban and rural areas.

Conclusions: This study shows that MPS could collect similar data to household surveys in terms of age, sex, high school education level and geographical area for some population categories. Strategies are needed to improve representativeness of the under-represented groups.

Keywords: Health informatics; Latin America; PUBLIC HEALTH.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Age Distribution
Cell Phone*
Colombia / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Health Surveys
Humans
Surveys and Questionnaires