Assessing the potential to combine attitude tracking and health campaign evaluation surveys

Abstract

Issue addressed Online surveys are becoming increasingly popular in health research because of the low cost and fast completion time. A large proportion of online survey costs are allocated to setup and administration expenses, which suggests that conducting fewer, longer surveys would be a cost-effective approach. The current study assessed whether the incorporation of a health campaign evaluation survey within a longitudinal attitudes and behaviours tracking survey produced different outcomes compared with the separate administration of the evaluation survey. Methods Data were collected via an online panel, with 688 respondents completing the combined survey and 657 respondents completing the evaluation-only survey. Regression analyses were conducted to examine whether survey type was related to the campaign evaluation results. Results Those who completed the combined survey perceived the campaign advertisement to be more personally relevant than those completing the evaluation-only survey. There were no differences in results relating to campaign awareness and reported behavioural change as a result of campaign exposure. Conclusions There were minimal differences between results obtained from combining an attitude/behaviour tracking survey with a campaign evaluation survey. Any priming or order effects were limited to respondents' cognitive responses to the advertisement. So what? The results suggest that health practitioners with limited resources available for tracking and evaluation research may be able to maximise outcomes by administering fewer, longer surveys.