Following the first wave of in-person data collection which finished in March, the population panel group successfully implemented a quick follow-up phone survey on health care of children and adolescents. The data collection took place between April 15th and April 29th via phone with the professional support of I.C.U. Healthcare and represents the first phone survey conducted by the research consortium for the SHPI Phase 2.
The 9 enumerators who conducted the calls were chosen among the enumerator team members of the in-person survey. They attended an additional training via zoom on the specifics of a phone survey, such as the calling procedure, how to proceed when a call is answered, how to identify the correct respondent, and re-call patterns in case a call is not answered. Whenever possible, the same enumerators who visited the household during wave 1 also called the respondent for the phone follow-up. Wherever the respective enumerator was not part of the phone survey team, someone else from the same district conducted the interview.
Like during the in-person survey, the interview was administered via the enumerators’ tablets on ODK. The survey included detailed questions on in- and outpatient care usage and health needs of children. For instance, information on how often, where, and for which reason health services are used. Overall, the survey collected information about more than 1200 children and adolescents (<15 years old) from around 470 households.
With this exercise, the population working group was able to successfully test the phone survey infrastructure, providing relevant experience for the whole research team. Also, the high response rate of almost 90% indicates a high willingness of the population panel to participate in the research in the long run. The group is now ready to conduct more follow-up phone surveys in the next steps of the research and is very thankful for the support of I.C.U. Healthcare. Finally, the group is very thankful towards the enumerator team that managed to collect data during the Ramadan time and despite the ongoing heatwave in Pakistan, showing strong commitment to the success of the project.