Proceedings of the study

Procedure of the study

© Dr. Tina Haase

Questionnaire development

The questionnaire was composed of several existing, publicly accessible questionnaires from other large German and international surveys. Some questions had to be adapted to the subject of the panel (see above) or to Saxony. To do this, the question was sometimes rephrased and sometimes options for answering were added. The GEPASA team developed two questions completely on its own.

Pretest

The modified and self-developed questions were then tested for comprehensibility with 10 people. Short interviews were held for this purpose, in which the participants were given time to read the questions and think aloud about how they would answer them. Based on their feedback, these selected questions were adapted again, for example by adding explanations or options for answering.

The entire questionnaire was sent to 300 people in Saxony on a preliminary basis in order to test whether the questions were well matched and whether all the topics that were relevant from the participants' point of view had been covered. Based on the feedback from the participants, individual questions were added to the final questionnaire.

Sampling

A representative sample of citizens in 48 municipalities, medium-sized towns and districts in Saxony is regularly surveyed. This means that the respondents of GEPASA, in terms of age, gender, education or occupation, represent the Saxon population. For this purpose, the population registration offices in Saxony have drawn a sample in accordance with their legal mandate under § 34 and §47 of the Federal Registration Act. In some cases, the TU Dresden's Trust Office drew the sample directly from the population register. The same legislation applies in this case.

Mailing

The such selected citizens have received a letter from the researchers at the Center for Evidence-Based Health Care, which contains a declaration of consent to voluntarily participate in the periodic survey and the questionnaire for the first survey phase. The letter also contains further information about the survey and contact details for the responsible persons in Chemnitz and Dresden. The declarations of consent are collected by the trust office of the TU Dresden. Only those who have returned a declaration of consent can take part in the survey.

Survey waves

The first wave of interviews is currently underway. In the future, we expect to conduct a survey every two years. The same people will be contacted and interviewed each time.

Focus surveys

It is possible that further surveys on various topics will be conducted between the individual waves. These topics will be based on the feedback from respondents on topics that they consider relevant to their health. Depending on the topic, only participants for whom the respective topics are relevant may be surveyed between the waves.