May telephone surveys provide reliable public health surveillance data for municipalities? Mode effects differ between categories of questions. The HUNT Study, Norway

Background: Availability of data on health and its determinants at the local area level is a prerequisite for developing interventions and public health campaigns locally. Collecting self-reported data by means of telephone interviews may rapidly provide relevant data. The reliability of such data may be questioned. In this study, we sought to compare exact similar questions addressed by a recent telephone survey with a previous large scale and very comprehensive population health survey (The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study 2006-08 – HUNT3), conducted a few years earlier in the same geographical region. This was done in order to examine the reliability of telephone interviews as a method to provide data on health and determinants to enable municipal authorities to get a sufficient overview. Methods: One rural and one urban municipality covered by HUNT3 using paper questionnaires were resurveyed through computer assisted telephone interviews. The weighted results for 34 dichotomized variables were compared using chi square tests. Results: The comparison of results between the rural and the urban samples and HUNT3 involved 68 chi square tests, 25 of which (38%) displayed significant differences. The ability of the telephone survey to replicate the results from HUNT3 was only moderate, but with differences between survey themes. Comparability was poor for adverse life events and mental health factors, fair for behavioural and risk factors, and skewed for general health and life satisfaction. The replication was good for reports on the less sensitive and subjective theme of cultural participation. Conclusion: The comparability of the data differed between themes. The differences may be ascribed to mode effects and to some extent the time lag between the surveys. Because replicability on issues that may be more embarrassing or stressful to recall appears to be poorer, and the more subjective self-assessments of health and well-being appear skewed, it is reasonable to conclude that there is an interviewer effect in the telephone survey. The use of a questionnaire through mail or web to monitor public health in municipalities should be considered as an alternative

Planning for Health Equity: How Municipal Strategic Documents and Project Plans Reflect Intentions Instructed by the Norwegian Public Health Act.

The Norwegian Public Health Act (PHA) mandates municipalities to integrate a systematic, knowledge-based, cross-sectoral approach aimed at levelling the social gradient in health. This study aimed to describe and analyse how the intentions of the PHA are addressed in municipal plans and project-planning documents. A document analysis of municipal plans and project documents extracted from four municipalities in Central Norway was employed and complemented with deductive, qualitative content analysis. Findings indicate awareness of public health work as a whole-of-municipality responsibility. Systematic knowledge-based processes that make use of relevant data in planning and decision-making processes are described across municipality projects and plans. Multisectoral working groups are set up at a project level; however, opportunities for further improvements arise in respect to the anchor of these structures and systematic knowledge-based working procedures in the wider municipal context. Public health process aims (systematic knowledge-based approach, cross-sectoral governance) receive more attention than outcome aims (health equity) in both program documents and municipal plans. Only very rarely does the document hold operationalizations of how to achieve health equity. As such, effort placed on cross-administrative levels and sectors to promote structures for health equity is still needed.publishedVersio

May telephone surveys provide reliable public health surveillance data for municipalities? Mode effects differ between categories of questions. The HUNT Study, Norway.

Background: Availability of data on health and its determinants at the local area level is a prerequisite for developing interventions and public health campaigns locally. Collecting self-reported data by means of telephone interviews may rapidly provide relevant data. The reliability of such data may be questioned. In this study, we sought to compare exact similar questions addressed by a recent telephone survey with a previous large scale and very comprehensive population health survey (The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study 2006-08 – HUNT3), conducted a few years earlier in the same geographical region. This was done in order to examine the reliability of telephone interviews as a method to provide data on health and determinants to enable municipal authorities to get a sufficient overview. Methods: One rural and one urban municipality covered by HUNT3 using paper questionnaires were resurveyed through computer assisted telephone interviews. The weighted results for 34 dichotomized variables were compared using chi square tests. Results: The comparison of results between the rural and the urban samples and HUNT3 involved 68 chi square tests, 25 of which (38%) displayed significant differences. The ability of the telephone survey to replicate the results from HUNT3 was only moderate, but with differences between survey themes. Comparability was poor for adverse life events and mental health factors, fair for behavioural and risk factors, and skewed for general health and life satisfaction. The replication was good for reports on the less sensitive and subjective theme of cultural participation. Conclusion: The comparability of the data differed between themes. The differences may be ascribed to mode effects and to some extent the time lag between the surveys. Because replicability on issues that may be more embarrassing or stressful to recall appears to be poorer, and the more subjective self-assessments of health and well-being appear skewed, it is reasonable to conclude that there is an interviewer effect in the telephone survey. The use of a questionnaire through mail or web to monitor public health in municipalities should be considered as an alternative