Field Work

Field work encompasses the tasks that field staff, such as field interviewers or telephone interviewers, perform before or during the data collection field period of a survey. Field work refers to both telephone and in-person studies. For telephone interviewing, field work is usually restricted to the field period. For in-person studies, field work may take place before, during, and after the field period for the study.

The field work for telephone studies usually involves working at a telephone survey center with computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) stations. In RDD (random-digit dialing) surveys, the computer at the CATI station dials randomly generated telephone numbers that are programmed into the CATI system. Given that the telephone numbers are randomly generated, part of the telephone interviewer's field work is to screen the telephone numbers to determine whether they are eligible for the study sample. For instance, if a study is sampling members of households, the interviewer has to determine whether the phone number dialed reaches a household, a business, or is a nonworking number. Usually, the interviewer samples eligible respondent(s) at the household by asking the person who answers the phone questions designed to randomly select a person or persons in the household. The telephone interviewer then administers the CATI questionnaire to the sampled respondent over the telephone or makes an appointment for a callback when the designated respondent will be available. In case of a refusal, the telephone interviewer uses his or her knowledge about the study and about refusal conversion skills to convince the respondent to participate. If not successful, the interviewer records the reason for the refusal in detail so that the case can be contacted again for refusal conversion.

The field work for in-person studies is more extensive than for telephone interviewing. Field work conducted in preparation for the field period for random sampling studies can include listing of dwelling unit addresses, which is performed by listers or enumerators. These field staff members work at the selected geographical areas for the study identifying eligible units and listing their addresses for sampling. For list samples, field work may involve contacting institutions to obtain lists of employees, members, or clients for sampling.

Field work for an in-person interviewer (or enumerator) during the study's field period may include locating the sampled units on a map and planning the most efficient way to travel to the area to conduct the interviews. Once in the area, the field interviewer contacts the sampled unit to request participation in the study. Field work may involve screening households or businesses to identify eligible respondents using a screening questionnaire. Once the eligible respondents are identified, the field interviewer administers the main questionnaire to the sampled respondents usually via computer-assisted in-person interviewing (CAPI) but also sometimes via a paper questionnaire. In some studies, field work also involves administering literacy assessments, collecting samples (e.g. hair, urine), and taking other health measurements of respondents, such as height and weight, in addition to administering a CAPI questionnaire. Field interviewers also ensure that respondents fill out any required study forms such as consent forms. Field interviewers may also call respondents to schedule appointments for additional interviews or assessments as part of their field work. Field interviewers may plan and implement refusal conversion strategies to convert refusals incurred by the interviewer or transferred from another interviewer.

...