Module+2+Topic+2+-+Writing+Survey+Items

A Healthy Lifestyle What do you think are the essential components of a healthy lifestyle?

Listed below are some statements about maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Please read each statement and mark your level of agreement on the scale provided.

1. It is important to exercise for **//Strongly agree Agree Strongly disagree Disagree//** 30 minutes at least 5 times each week. (I am pondering here – should I put ‘regularly’ instead of specifying an amount, but then people define regularly differently.) (I have deliberately left out an agree/disagree box as I want people to have to answer.)

2. It is important to ensure you **//Strongly agree Agree Strongly disagree Disagree//** get approximately 8 hours of sleep every night.

3. It is important to eat 2 serves **//Strongly agree Agree Strongly disagree Disagree//** of fresh fruit and 5 serves of vegetables most days.

4. We should drink **//Strongly agree Agree Strongly disagree//** **//Disagree//** approximately 8 glasses of water. each day

5. List the foods you should eat regularly. (I put should rather than do as respondents might be more willing to answer the ideal rather than the reality.)

6. What activities could help you meet the daily exercise requirements?

7. What other components are important in maintaining a healthy lifestyle?

Rationale I found this task more difficult than I first thought. It made me realise there is more to creating a survey than just writing questions. As we were asked to use the Likert scale with our first questions, I set about formulating some statements that would help determine the strength of people’s attitudes when it came to health. I concentrated on the much publicised requirement for exercise, water and fruit and vegetable consumption but also included a question on sleep.

I tried to make my statements precise and clear so that the respondents knew exactly what I was asking them to comment on. I added exact times and/or amounts to lessen uncertainty. I didn’t want to ask for responses that required my respondents to recall knowledge they might not have. I tried to avoid double barrelled questions – although I guess in some ways the fruit and vegetable one could be classed as double barrel. I put these together as we always hear them advertised as being part of the same statement in the media. I believe my Likert items are worded in such a way that all respondents could easily answer. They are not required to recall any unrealistic information or details and none of the questions should be considered embarrassing as they are not individually specific. I think the questions are relevant to most people – as far as the topic goes anyway. Unfortunately we all know there are some people who might not be interested in the health despite all the attention it receives on the media. I guess any researcher, no matter how well prepared, can find this happening in reality. I believe my statements are based on real issues that are frequently advertised and spoken about. People should have the necessary knowledge to respond to my survey just by going about their everyday lives. My statements are relatively short – as short as they can be whilst still meeting all the other requirements for good questions as discussed by Babbie, 2011. The respondent should be able to read and understand the item quickly and easily. No negative statements have been used to avoid misinterpretation. I have tried to keep bias out of my statements by basing them on advertised data and health guidelines. (Not sure about the sleep hours, I’m sure I read 8 somewhere.) I guess you could argue that the respondent might feel they have to answer a particular way because these guidelines are public and they want to be seen to fit the ‘healthy’ model but I don’t know how else to word the statements to avoid that. Because this topic is so prevalent in the media, I think however you word the questions or statements you will have the potential for this ‘social desirability’ Babbie, 2011, to be evident. With my open-ended questions I have once again tried to ensure the respondent wouldn’t feel they were being asked something they were unable to answer. The questions would give the researcher further insight into their knowledge of food and exercise while also giving them the opportunity to add extra knowledge they might have. I guess one might actually argue that my questions don’t necessarily report what the respondent does but I don’t believe the task asked that. We were asked to design questions that show what people ‘think’ are the components of a healthy lifestyle. This task has made me think critically about some of the surveys I have been asked to do at times!


 * Please Note: When I transferred this survey to the Wikispace it lost its spacing between elements of the Likert scale and I couldn't get it to space properly. **