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. 2018 Apr 24;7(4):e96.
doi: 10.2196/resprot.7655.

Addressing Participant Validity in a Small Internet Health Survey (The Restore Study): Protocol and Recommendations for Survey Response Validation

James Dewitt  1 , Benjamin Capistrant  2 , Nidhi Kohli  3 , B R Simon Rosser  1 , Darryl Mitteldorf  4 , Enyinnaya Merengwa  5 , William West  6
Affiliations

Addressing Participant Validity in a Small Internet Health Survey (The Restore Study): Protocol and Recommendations for Survey Response Validation

James Dewitt et al. JMIR Res Protoc. .

Abstract

Background: While deduplication and cross-validation protocols have been recommended for large Web-based studies, protocols for survey response validation of smaller studies have not been published.

Objective: This paper reports the challenges of survey validation inherent in a small Web-based health survey research.

Methods: The subject population was North American, gay and bisexual, prostate cancer survivors, who represent an under-researched, hidden, difficult-to-recruit, minority-within-a-minority population. In 2015-2016, advertising on a large Web-based cancer survivor support network, using email and social media, yielded 478 completed surveys.

Results: Our manual deduplication and cross-validation protocol identified 289 survey submissions (289/478, 60.4%) as likely spam, most stemming from advertising on social media. The basic components of this deduplication and validation protocol are detailed. An unexpected challenge encountered was invalid survey responses evolving across the study period. This necessitated the static detection protocol be augmented with a dynamic one.

Conclusions: Five recommendations for validation of Web-based samples, especially with smaller difficult-to-recruit populations, are detailed.

Keywords: data accuracy; data analysis; fraudulent data; research activities; research and design.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Restore study data validation protocol. ID: identification; IP: Internet Protocol; PSA: Prostate-Specific Antigen Test.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Geographic distribution of the sample (N=193 gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men [GBM] prostate cancer survivors).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Recruitment process and participation rates in the Restore study. All advertising on social media removed on 11/5, but survey link left open to keep spammers on the site while members sent to new link.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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