Conducting regional health surveys using a computer‐assisted telephone interviewing method

After the creation of thirteen health regions within Queensland in 1991, the need arose for an information base at the regional level to assist regions with their role in planning, monitoring and evaluating health services. A series of regional health surveys was conducted in 1993 to provide this information, using a computer-assisted telephone interviewing method. Over 10 400 interviews were conducted throughout the state. This is the first time a computer-assisted method has been used on a large scale to collect health-related information in Australia. Interviews used list-directed or random-digit dialing, depending on the rate of unlisted numbers in a region. Response rates were not significantly different for the two methods, although the number of contactable numbers attempted and the noncontact rates were significantly higher for random-digit regions. The last-birthday method was used to select the adult for interview in each household. The method resulted in a bias toward female respondents.