Method: survey

Discover the views, opinions and behaviour of patients, their loved ones, informal carers and citizens using the quantitative research method survey.

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Of interest to:

• patient organisations
• researchers
• municipalities
• policy-makers
• care institutions

Recommended for:

• exploring the opinions, experiences, behaviour and factual details of a large group of respondents.

A survey, also referred to as questionnaire research, is a structured way of collecting data. It is the most commonly used form of research by patient organisations in their consultation with their background support. The results are useful in clarifying patients’/clients’ standpoint for the development of guidelines and improvement of care, for instance.

Why conduct a survey?

A survey is useful for obtaining a reliable and representative understanding of opinions, experiences regarding satisfaction, information on characteristics, feelings, thoughts, knowledge and behavioural intentions of a group, particularly a large group, of people.

Verbal or written

A survey can be conducted verbally or in writing (on paper or digitally). Many organisations use a designated panel (group of representatives). They periodically conduct a survey among this panel on different topics.

Advantages of a survey

• Much information in a short period of time
• Being able to address a large number of people at once
• Fast data processing
• Wide choice of tools for automatic processing

Disadvantages of a survey

• Greater chance of socially desirable answers
• In-depth questions are difficult to pose
• Extensive prior knowledge is needed to draw up answer categories

Mixed methods

A combination of quantitative and qualitative research is often used. If you have little prior knowledge for a survey, you can first conduct qualitative research through a focus group or interview, for instance.

Online surveys

There are many tools for conducting online survey research. An online survey is:

• fast – you invite people via the internet and get results quickly
• convenient – you can make use of questionnaires that have been tried and tested by others
• easy – results can be reported automatically

Training courses for survey research

INVOLV regularly provides training courses in quantitative and qualitative research. We recommend taking a look at our training overview page (in Dutch).