The questionnaire was piloted to a convenience sample of front-line and administrative staff working with the investigators to check for clarity, readability and question relevance as well as time for completion of the questionnaires.
The results clearly indicate that better clarity and readability of questions in the personal theme was one of the factors resulting in enhanced efficiency.
The initial version was tested in a pilot phase among local anaesthetists in order to ensure readability and eliminate questions that may evoke erroneous answers.
Although we used established measures to assess readability of the questions, all scenarios were hypothetical which may have been difficult to understand for some women; particularly if English was not their first language.
The choice depends on the proposed use of the instrument, the concept to be measured, the readability of the questions, the requirements and costs associated with the use of the instrument, the burden on the subjects, and, last but not least, the measurement properties of the instruments.
We also began testing comprehension of draft items in the final third of the 81 participants by obtaining feedback about readability and clarity of question.
After completing the OHS, the respondents were systematically interviewed and debriefed on their thoughts concerning the relevance of the questions, the specific wording of each item, any difficulties in understanding the questions, the readability, and their experience in answering the questionnaire.
Readability of the test questions, measured by Flesh-Kincaid grade level, is 6th grade.
The questionnaires were pre-tested: firstly, questions from other European surveys that were added to the HIS 2008 questionnaire benefited from a large scale pre-test [ 12] and secondly, the HIS questionnaire was pre-tested by the WIV-ISP in a small, diverse sample of people to evaluate the length, comprehension, readability etc. of questions.
After completing the survey, a researcher went through each response item-by-item probing for readability and interpretation of each question.
