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Field Procedures

Interviewers reported to their regional field managers or team leaders during prearranged team conference calls. The purpose of these on-going calls was to answer any questions that the Interviewers may have had and to monitor their progress. In addition, this time was used for planning approaches to specific cases, discussing refusals and conversion strategies, describing tracking procedures, and discussing strategies to meet the overall goals of the study. During the entire study period, but particularly the first weeks of the study, production was monitored very closely.

Every interviewer's first household case in the spring data collection and in the fall data collection was sent to their team leader. The case was thoroughly edited and evaluated and the household was also called for verification of the interview. In addition to the first case, household cases could be flagged at any time for evaluation and verification. If an interviewer was identified as having problems, all their cases could be flagged for review.

Coding and Data Entry

For every time diary coder, the first few diaries were check-coded by the head coder. After the initial check, at least 10% of each coder's diaries was check-coded by the head coder.

The first 15 to 20 questionnaires (depending on the size of the questionnaire) of each data entry staff person were reentered. The total number of eligible questions minus the number of mistakes was divided by the number of eligible questions to determine each staff member's reliability score. If a staff member's reliability score was below 98%, every questionnaire was reentered for verification. If the staff member's reliability score was above 98%, approximately 20% of the questionnaires were reentered for verification. The average reliability score for the data entry staff was 99.2%.