Issues that were thought to be relevant were populated into either free text questions or likert scale questions as appropriate.
This was followed by more prompting questions as appropriate, for example: How did you respond to his demand for sex?
Two interviewers (SF, LZ) were present for each interview; one person led the interview while the other person took notes and interjected comments and/or questions as appropriate.
Similarly, a question skip pattern was applied to conditional questions as appropriate (e.g. non-smokers were not asked smoking history questions) and various logic and consistency checks were built into the software to reduce error rates.
The questionnaire was hosted via a dedicated online-based platform (Survey Monkey®, Menlo Park, CA [surveymonkey.com]), and comprised of five-point Likert scales and free text response questions as appropriate.
Data quality assurance measures will be embedded during conduct of the CATI, including staff training to ensure standard administration of survey items and inclusion of range checks for numerical questions as appropriate (eg, number of staff in service, number of children enrolled).
For secondary outcomes, we documented completed follow-up assessment questions (as appropriate) and agreement between the classification of the health worker and the IMCI expert on the four primary disease areas – pneumonia, dehydration (with diarrhea for less than 14 days), diarrhea (for more than 14 days) and malaria.
Not all physicians answered each questions and, consequently numbers were adjusted as appropriate for each question.
This scale was designed as a 'chronic generic measure', including not only children with CP, but other paediatric conditions, thus, some questions may not be as appropriate as in other outcome measures.
External validity refers to whether the study is asking an appropriate research question, as well as whether the study results reflect what can be expected in the population of interest (generalizability) [22].
