Table 1 Criteria guiding inclusion and exclusion of themes and items/scales in the Lolland-Falster Health Study (LOFUS) questionnaires
Criteria guiding inclusion | Explanation |
Importance and relevance | Assessed by steering committee based on protocols from PIs applying for data collection in LOFUS, included aspects such as clear research question and clinical, public health, or theoretical importance. |
Fairness | Balancing needs and wishes of each subproject. |
Validity | Use of validated items/scales to save time and resources, allow for comparison between studies, and promote publications. Alternatively, inclusion of items/scales previously used in population surveys to allow for comparisons between studies. Otherwise, inclusion of in-house made items. |
Length (feasibility) | Weighting of depth against breadth and response burden. Negotiations with subprojects on “need-to-know” versus “nice-to-know” to cut length without compromising research aims. |
Acceptance/ethical considerations | Weighting of potentially negative effects of including sensitive and/or offensive items/scales against arguments for inclusion, e.g. politically prioritised fields of interest. |
Simplicity/easy to understand | Weighting of simplicity and comprehensibility due to relatively high illiteracy in the target population. |
Harmonization | Inclusion of items/scales that could be used across age-groups or merged with data from other studies. |
Criteria guiding exclusion | Explanation |
Data available in registries | Limiting response burden by using information that could be retrieved from national registries. |
Diagnoses | Information about medical diagnoses are more reliable through national registries than through self-reported questionnaire. |
Copyright on items/scalesa | Copyright may limit design options of questionnaires and add extra cost. |