Epidemiology: Open Access

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SMS Phone Surveys and Mass-Messaging: Promises and Pitfalls

Havard Wahl Kongsgard* , Tore Syversen and Steinar Krokstad SMS Phone Surveys and Mass-Messaging: Promises and Pitfalls

Data collection is often tedious and costly. Collecting data with mobile phones and SMS messages is one of many alternatives to more traditional methods. Mass messaging using SMS is a fast and cheap way to initiate a new study. However, as these data collection methods differ widely from conventional surveys, there are many pitfalls. This paper discusses best practice for SMS surveys and mass-messaging as a survey method. We argue that the best approach is to keep everything simple, invite a great number of respondents and know when to give up. Using SMS's or SMS systems for population wide data collection is a form of "mass messaging". Some European countries enforce an all-out ban on all SPAM like communication or require prior-consent. However, non-commercial actors like researchers are often accepted from such regulations. While plain text messages might be regarded as old and unattractive, the technology is fairly robust as it is very simple to generate and use. All types of mass-messaging give a low response-rate as e.g. email SPAM will generate typical response rates in the extent 1 of 12,500,000. But since scaling the survey will generate thousands of observations, low response-rate is not the main problem. Instead given the nature of mass-messaging, selection bias and data quality is a major concern. Nevertheless, these issues are not new to medicine and should not come as a surprise to anyone.