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A Web-based survey on students' conceptions of 'accident'
Danilo Blank1, Guilherme Hohgraefe Neto, Elisa Grando
1Department of Pediatrics, Núcleo de Estudos da Saúde da Criança e do Adolescente (NESCA), Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil. blank@ufrgs.br
This study implemented an open-source web survey application to explore Brazilian university students' conceptions of injury-causing events. The survey achieved a 34.5% response rate, demonstrating the feasibility of web-based data collection in middle-income countries.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Sociology
- Web Science
Background:
- Traditional survey methods can be resource-intensive.
- Web-based applications offer potential for efficient data collection.
- Understanding conceptions of injury is crucial for public health interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To report the implementation of an open-source web survey application.
- To assess logistics and response behavior in a survey of Brazilian university students.
- To investigate students' conceptions of injury-causing events.
Main Methods:
- Development of an original open-source web survey application for respondent recruitment, invitation, response storage, and data export.
- Survey administered to medical, law, communication, and education students.
- Inquiry into personal attributes and conceptions of 'accident,' including associations and preventability.
Main Results:
- Achieved a 34.5% response rate, with 66.3% responding within the first week.
- Low refusal rates for sensitive questions (religion: 4.2%, politics: 19.2%) compared to questions on conceptions (2.8%).
- No significant difference in attributes or accident conceptions between early and late respondents.
- 85.1% associated 'accident' with preventability, 50.3% with foreseeability.
Conclusions:
- Web surveying is a feasible method for collecting data on injury conceptions from university students in middle-income countries.
- The developed open-source application is effective for respondent recruitment and data management.
- Response rates are comparable to those reported in existing literature, suggesting the utility of this approach.
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