STAT6000: Statistics for Public Health - Survey Design Assessment 1

This assignment involves designing a short telephone survey to assess the demographic characteristics of individuals within the catchment area of a local community health service, differentiating between users and non-users. Part 1 focuses on identifying and contacting these groups, exploring potential sources of population data such as census, vital registration, and population registers, along with their respective advantages and disadvantages. The assignment emphasizes heterogeneous purposive sampling for participant recruitment, aiming to gather diverse perspectives on the utilization of the local community health service. The rationale behind this sampling method is discussed, highlighting its qualitative generalizability and potential for identifying average values, while also acknowledging its limitations regarding inferential statistical methods and researcher bias. Part 2 includes a set of survey questions designed to gather relevant information on demographics, health service usage, and user experiences, covering aspects such as age, employment status, ethnicity, education, community residency, awareness of the service, frequency of use, service facilities, recent usage, and affordability. The assignment is supported by references to relevant literature on population data and sampling methods.

Running head: ASSESSMENT 1
STAT6000: Statistics for Public Health
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ASSESSMENT 1
Part 1
Population data generally refers to indicators of different information related to a
population such as, death, birth, migration, sex, age, religion, literacy, occupation, language, and
marital status. Such population data facilitates the formulation and implementation of different
policies and plans in a particular community, state or nation. Possible sources of population data
will be census, vital registration and population registers. Census refers to the major source of
demographic data pertaining to a particular time to all individuals in a well delimited region of a
nation. Although it contains a comprehensive account of demographic data, one major
disadvantage is in the difference in amount of detail that is provided, and the accuracy of
information that makes comparison difficult (O’Hare, 2019). Also referred to a civil registration
system, vital registration system contains a record of vital events like marriage, migration, birth,
death, and divorce. Though it provides relevant information and helps in studying dynamics of
the population, poor coverage of data often makes it difficult to study the population dynamics
(AbouZahr et al., 2015). Population registers provide a comprehensive account of the
modification that have occurred in a population, and contain a separate card for each person,
right from the time of birth or immigration to death or emigration. This will act as the most
reliable source of collecting information (Björk et al., 2017).
The process of heterogeneous purposive sampling will be followed for recruitment of
participants, in order to obtain a diverse range of individuals who will be able to provide
information to the particular phenomenon that is being investigated. The primary objective of
adopting the sample design is to gain as much information as possible, about the utilisation of the
local community health service. After obtaining records from the population register, the
participants will be selected based on judgment of researcher, thereby necessitating that prior

2ASSESSMENT 1
knowledge about the main objective of the survey is present. Another reason for following
purposive sampling is that the findings will be qualitatively generalised to a wider population,
and will also provide the opportunity to look at average values in the collected data (Etikan,
Musa & Alkassim, 2016). However, it will provide significant inferential statistical methods that
are typically invalid, and is highly prone to researcher bias, notwithstanding the type of method
used for data collection. This researcher bias can be accredited to the fact that the sample will be
created based on the personal interpretation and opinion of the researcher. The participants who
will be recruited might also manipulate the collected data, thus producing incorrect results.

3ASSESSMENT 1
Part 2
Questions Answers
What is your age?
Are you currently employed?
Please specify your ethnicity
What is your educational attainment?
How long have you been residing in this
community?
Are you aware of the local community health
service?
Yes (1) No (0)
How frequently do you use the health service? Always (4), usually (3), sometimes (2), rarely (1),
never (0)
What kind of facilities does this service provide?
When was the last time you used the service? Less than one month (4), within three months (3),
within six months (2), a year ago (1), do not
remember (0)
Is the service affordable and free for all? Always (4), usually (3), sometimes (2), rarely (1),
never (0)

4ASSESSMENT 1
References
AbouZahr, C., De Savigny, D., Mikkelsen, L., Setel, P. W., Lozano, R., Nichols, E., ... & Lopez,
A. D. (2015). Civil registration and vital statistics: progress in the data revolution for
counting and accountability. The Lancet, 386(10001), 1373-1385.
Björk, J., Strömberg, U., Rosengren, A., Toren, K., Fagerberg, B., Grimby-Ekman, A., &
BergströM, G. M. (2017). Predicting participation in the population-based Swedish
cardiopulmonary bio-image study (SCAPIS) using register data. Scandinavian journal of
public health, 45(17_suppl), 45-49.
Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and
purposive sampling. American journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1-4.
O’Hare, W. P. (2019). The Importance of Census Accuracy: Uses of Census Data. In Differential
Undercounts in the US Census (pp. 13-24). Springer, Cham.