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and an information sheet outlining the process for completing the survey with their
anonymous login code. An entry form for a competition to win one of 5 iPods and a
reply paid envelope was also included. For those young people under the age of 16
years, the letter was addressed to the parent/ caregiver with a request to pass the
information to their child to complete if they agreed to their participation. As well as the
contact details for the research team an 0800 number was set up that was diverted to
my mobile phone for 24hour support if required. A follow-up reminder was sent to all
participants at three to four weeks and three months after the initial contact. This had
been decided in the planning stage as a review of the literature had identified that
reminders as well as incentives improved response rates (Kaplowitz et al., 2004; Rosoff
et al., 2005).
The data collection period was initially set for three months, however
unanticipated problems occurred for some participants in accessing the survey. The
access issues were more common with laptops. The cause was identified as being the
high security settings of some computer software which blocked the site. This hadn’t
been evident during the testing of the survey, predominantly on hospital computers and
laptops which allowed access. The web-based survey had been developed for the two
Youth Health surveys where the hand-held internet tablets were part of an integrated
system i.e. connected by a router to a laptop used as a server for the survey software
programme. The same website development company set up and hosted the site for this
survey and the difficulties with access were not foreseen.
In discussion with the hosting company it was felt that the best option was to
advise those young people experiencing problems how to turn off the “ pop-up
blockers” and with the second mail out a slip was enclosed explaining the simple steps
to bypass the security settings. This was successful for some but did not allow access for
all. The web development company was ultimately able to refine the software
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