Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr 14:7:e37358.
doi: 10.2196/37358.

A Web-Based Audio Computer-Assisted Self-interview Application With Illustrated Pictures to Administer a Hepatitis B Survey Among a Myanmar-Born Community in Perth, Australia: Development and User Acceptance Study

Nang Nge Nge Phoo  1 , Alison Reid  1 , Roanna Lobo  1 , Murray Davies  2 , Daniel Vujcich  1
Affiliations

A Web-Based Audio Computer-Assisted Self-interview Application With Illustrated Pictures to Administer a Hepatitis B Survey Among a Myanmar-Born Community in Perth, Australia: Development and User Acceptance Study

Nang Nge Nge Phoo et al. JMIR Form Res. .

Abstract

Background: Self-administered paper or electronic surveys can create accessibility issues for people with language barriers and limited literacy, whereas face-to-face interviews can create privacy issues and give rise to reporting biases, particularly in the context of sensitive subject matters. An audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) offers an alternative mode of survey administration, and its use has been tested against other survey modes to determine whether the presence of a background narration helps overcome literacy and privacy issues. There are still gaps with the ACASI survey administration because audio narration alone does not assist respondents with limited literacy in choosing response options. To overcome literacy issues, a few studies have used illustrated pictures for a limited number of response options.

Objective: This study aimed to illustrate all the questions and response options in an ACASI application. This research is part of a larger study comparing different modes of survey administration (ACASI, face-to-face interviews, and self-administered paper surveys) to collect data on hepatitis B knowledge, attitudes, and practices among the Myanmar-born community in Perth, Australia. This study describes the 2-phase process of developing a web-based ACASI application using illustrated pictures.

Methods: The first phase was the preparation of the ACASI elements, such as questionnaire, pictures, brief descriptions of response options, and audio files. Each element was pretested on 20 participants from the target population. The second phase involved synchronizing all the elements into the web-based ACASI application and adapting the application features, in particular, autoplay audio and illustrated pictures. The preprototype survey application was tested for user acceptance on 5 participants from the target population, resulting in minor adjustments to the display and arrangement of response options.

Results: After a 12-month development process, the prototype ACASI application with illustrated pictures was fully functional for electronic survey administration and secure data storage and export.

Conclusions: Pretesting each element separately was a useful approach because it saved time to reprogram the application at a later stage. Future studies should also consider the participatory development of pictures and visual design of user interfaces. This picture-assisted ACASI survey administration mode can be further developed and used to collect sensitive information from populations that are usually marginalized because of literacy and language barriers.

Keywords: ACASI; application; audio computer; audio computer-assisted self-interview; digital health; picture; survey mode.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Development process of a web-based audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) application with illustrated pictures.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Development and revision of pictures based on the storyboard in Table 1.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Revision of pictures after the pretest of pictures.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Speaker buttons with 2 functions in the web-based audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) application with illustrated pictures.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Changes in radio button styles in the web-based audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) application with illustrated pictures.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Prompts of the forced answer feature in the web-based audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) application with illustrated pictures.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Mutepfa M, Tapera R. Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences. Singapore: Springer; 2019. Traditional survey and questionnaire platforms.
    1. Tourangeau R, Yan T. Sensitive questions in surveys. Psychol Bull. 2007 Sep;133(5):859–83. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.133.5.859.2007-12463-007 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Weeks M. Computer-assisted survey information collection: a review of CASIC methods and their implications for survey operations. J Official Stat. 1992;8(4):445–65.
    1. O'Reilly JM, Hubbard ML, Lessler JT, Biemer PP, Turner CF. Audio and video computer-assisted self interviewing: preliminary tests of new technologies for data collection. J Off Stat. 1994;10(2):197–214. https://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/22347766 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Johnston J, Walton C. Reducing response effects for sensitive questions: a computer-assisted self interview with audio. Social Sci Comput Rev. 2016 Aug 18;13(3):304–19. doi: 10.1177/089443939501300302. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources