FEHES Recommendations
Draft
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Last updated: 05 March.2008 HT
9. Needed resources and preparation of
a survey budget
Hanna Tolonen1, …
1
National Public Health Institute, Department of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease
Prevention, Helsinki, Finland
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9.1 Issues affecting to the needed resources
Conducting a national health examination survey (HES) requires resources, which include
personnel costs and materials as well as possible travel expenses, accommodations, rents,
material shipments, etc. The type and amount of needed resources is dependent on the survey
mode and survey size, i.e. what is measured, on what settings and from how many persons
has a direct effect on required resources.
The budget puts the actual prize tag for the needed resources and in many cases also gives the
direction for the survey mode and size. The preparation of the budget should be started
already in the early stages of the planning. Extend of the survey i.e. number of included
measurements and number of examined persons effects directly to the required resources and
budget. Also the survey model i.e. is survey measurements conducted at the home of the
participants, at the fixed examination clinics or on the mobile examination units has an effect
to the required resources.
9.2 Needed resources in different stages of HES
Conducting a health examination survey can be divided into 11 stages: (1) planning, (2)
coordination, (3) training, (4) piloting, (5) sampling, (6) recruitment, (7) field work, (8)
laboratory analysis, (9) data entry and cleaning, (10) quality assurance, and (11) analysis and
reporting.
9.2.1 Planning
The planning of the survey sets the foundation to the actual survey and therefore enough
resources should be reserved for this task. The planning stage mainly requires personnel
resources; senior researchers, advisers, data management, statisticians, and laboratory
technicians who have special knowledge how different issues should be taken into account in
the actual survey.
9.2.2 Coordination
Personnel requirements:
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Responsible person (usually senior researcher)
Coordinator
Possibly secretary
Equipment requirements:
• Computers (usually with internet connection)
• Telephones / mobile phones
• Software licenses
• Office materials (pens, papers, etc.)
Other needed resources:
• Premises for the coordinating office
• Travels and accommodations of the coordinator(s) to the field
• Resources needed for the recruitment of the fieldwork personnel (newspaper adds,
etc.)
9.2.3 Training
Personnel requirements:
• Trainers, number and qualifications depend on survey contents
Equipment requirements:
• Depends on included measurements
• See list of needed equipments per measurement in Chapter 7
Other needed resources:
• Travels and accommodations of the trainers
• Travels and accommodations of the trainees
• Premises for the training
9.2.4 Piloting
Personnel requirements:
• Fieldwork personnel (amount dependent on survey mode, and extend)
• Data management person(s)
• Statistician(s)s
• Laboratory personnel
Equipment requirements:
• Equipment obtained already for the training can be used in the pilot. There may be
need to obtain extras for the pilot.
• Equipment needed for data transfer
• Computers
Other needed resources:
• Premises for the pilot
• Transfer of the materials to and from the pilot site
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Travels and accommodations of the personnel during the pilot
9.2.5 Sampling
Personnel requirements:
• determination of sample size
• selection and/or preparation of sampling frame
• sample selection (may also be bought service from sampling frame owner)
• data management (computer resources, database manager)
Equipment requirements:
• Computers
• Software licenses (database, etc.)
9.2.6 Recruitment
Personnel requirements:
• person(s) preparing the invitation letters, questionnaires, other printed materials
• Person(s) doing recruitment (mailing of invitations, calling the appointments,
answering request by phone and mail, etc.)
• data management
Equipment requirements:
• computers
• telephones / mobile phones
• software licenses
Other needed resources:
• printing of the materials
• mailing costs, telephone costs, home visit costs
• reminder costs
• toll-free telephone number for more information and examination time booking
• incentives
• newspaper advertisement, radio advertisement, etc.
9.2.7 Fieldwork
Personnel requirements:
• fieldwork teams (number and qualification of the personnel depends on survey mode
and extend)
• data manager
Equipment requirements:
• Equipment obtained already for the training can be used in the pilot. There may be
need to obtain extras for the pilot.
• Office materials (pens, papers, etc.)
Other needed resources:
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transfer of the materials to the field examination site
transfer of personnel to the field examination site
accommodation of the personnel during the field work period
storage of the materials on the field
transfer of the materials from field examination site to the coordination
centre/laboratory
rents of the examination sites
data transfer connections / phones / faxes etc.
9.2.8 Laboratory analysis
Personnel requirements:
• Number and qualifications of the laboratory personnel depends on laboratory analysis
needed and about the number of samples to be analyzed
• Data management
Equipment requirements:
• allocation tubes
• storage tubes
• pipettes
• storage tracks
• storage boxes
• reagents
Other needed resources:
• ??
9.2.9 Data entry and cleaning
Personnel requirements:
• Data entry person(s)
• Statistician
• Data management
Equipment requirements:
• Computers
• Software licenses
• Scanners (if data is not keyed in manually but scanned)
Other needed resources:
• Transfer of the materials (questionnaires) to and from the data entry
9.2.10 Quality assurance
Personnel requirements:
• ..
Equipment requirements:
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Computers
Software licenses
Other needed resources:
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9.2.11 Analysis and reporting
Personnel requirements:
• Statistician(s) for the analysis
• Researcher(s) for the reporting
• Construction of web reports (if done)
Equipment requirements:
• Computers
• Software licenses
Other needed resources:
• Printing of the reports
• Sending the laboratory and other test results to the participants
• Press releases
9.3 Preparation of the survey budget
Preparation of the survey budgets starts with the list of the needed resources. After that, it has
to be assessed how many working days for each personnel group is needed, how many of
each equipment is needed and how much of the other resources are needed so that the
planned survey can be completed. After that the prize of the one unit is determined and then
the budget for each needed resource will come as the product of number of units by cost per
unit. The total budget is the sum of the resource specific budgets.
Often a lot about the planning and coordination tasks of the survey are done by the public
officers who do the work as part of their official duties. In cases like this, it may be difficult
to define the personnel costs of their work for the budget.
9.4 Example of the needed resources and budget
A health examination survey is conducted in country A, among 25-64 years old men and
women. More to be added later.
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