Use of Mobile Forms in Low-Resource Areas for Population Health Surveys: Interview and Field Test Study.

Abstract

Background: Population health surveys are an important tool to effectively allocate limited resources in low-resource communities. In such an environment, surveys are often done by the local population with pen and paper. Data thus collected are difficult to tabulate and analyze.

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the viability and efficiency of mobile forms as an alternative to paper-based surveys in a specific low-resource setting.

Methods: We conducted pilot interviews with 53 local surveyors in the Philippines to assess their initial attitudes toward mobile forms. We then built software that can generate mobile forms that are easy to use, capable of working offline, and able to track key metrics such as time to complete questions. Our mobile form was field-tested in 3 locations in the Philippines with 33 surveyors collecting health survey responses from 266 participants.

Results: In the pilot phase, we found that 32 out of 53 (60%) of the local surveyors preferred mobile forms over paper. After field-testing, the number of surveyors preferring mobile forms increased to 25 out of 33 (76%) after just using the form a few times. The mobile forms overall demonstrated enhanced efficiency in data collection and usability over paper surveys.

Conclusions: Our findings indicate that mobile forms are a viable method to conduct large-scale population health surveys in this low-resource environment.