Abstract
Quality control is an important aspect of a study because the quality of data collected
provides a foundation for the conclusions drawn from the study. For studies that include
interviews, establishing quality control for interviews is critical in ascertaining
whether interviews are conducted according to protocol. Despite the importance of
quality control for interviews, few studies adequately document the quality control
procedures used during data collection. This article reviews quality control for interviews
and describes methods and results of quality control for interviews from two of our
studies regarding the accuracy of children’s dietary recalls; the focus is on quality
control regarding interviewer performance during the interview, and examples are provided
from studies with children. For our two studies, every interview was audio recorded
and transcribed. The audio recording and typed transcript from one interview conducted
by each research dietitian either weekly or daily were randomly selected and reviewed
by another research dietitian, who completed a standardized quality control for interviews
checklist.Major strengths of the methods of quality control for interviews in our
two studies include: (a) interviews obtained for data collection were randomly selected
for quality control for interviews, and (b) quality control for interviews was assessed
on a regular basis throughout data collection. The methods of quality control for
interviews described may help researchers design appropriate methods of quality control
for interviews for future studies.
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Biography
S. D. Baxter is a research professor and C. H. Guinn a research dietitian, University of South Carolina, Ar-nold School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiol-ogy and Biostatistics, Center for Research in Nutrition and Health Disparities, Columbia. W. O. Thompson is director and professor emeritus, Office of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta. At the time of the study, N. M. Shaffer, S. Baxter, M. L. Baglio, C. H. Guinn, and F. H. A. Frye were at the Medical College of Georgia, Department Pediatrics, Georgia Prevention Institute, Augusta.
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© 2004 American Dietetic Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
