Development of a Standardized Telephone Interview Instrument

Abstract

Although survey research methods have been accepted in the scientific community, applications of telephone interview methods in occupational therapy research and program evaluation studies remain limited. The benefits of telephone interview methods include high response rates, ability to ask exploratory questions, cost-effectiveness, and ability to branch questions to subsets of a study population. Through the process of standardizing research instruments and administration procedures, the reliability of data collected by telephone can be increased substantially. The evaluation of an interview instrument is a critical aspect of study design. Details of an evaluation study and strategies to enhance the process of assessing interview instruments are provided.