Tips on implementing restaurant smoking
policy surveys
- Overview
of Restaurant Questionnaire
- Restaurant
Survey Implementation Questions
- Tips
on Implementation
4. General Questions
1.
Content review of the restaurant survey:
Content is broken down into the basic parts as follows:
- Identifiers and
screening questions to get restaurants that fit the criteria.
- Size, sit-down
area, ownership, etc.
- Whether there is a
smoking policy.
- Attitudes -
motivations for creating smoking policies, or allowing smoking.
- Who sets smoking
policy?
- Number of seats in
smoking and non-smoking sections.
- How smoking and
non-smoking sections are physically separated.
- Employee
compliance with policies, and consequences for breaking them.
- Attitude towards ETS
- Do you want
coalition assistance to change?
The questions in this survey were developed based on what local coalitions
need to know to change ordinances.
2. Restaurant
Survey Implementation Questions:
3. Q:
Is the survey mandatory or can a coalition develop
their own?
A: Using the MEP questionnaire is not mandatory, however we
encourage you to use the survey instrument as is for the following reasons:
- Your data can
contribute to statewide evaluation efforts allowing you to see what
works on the local level.
- You may not think
these questions are valuable when you start out, but you may wish you
had collected this data a few years down the road.
o
The questions have been tested to make sure
they make sense.
4. Q:
How has the survey been tested?
A: There have been 10 pilot tests through our regional evaluation
specialists (with a variety of establishments, not just restaurants
"friendly" to our cause) as well as coalition feedback from
groups interested in using the instrument, resulting in a number of changes
and discussion among the original designers.
5. Telephone
vs. Mail Surveys
Q: The survey seems too long. Can I just mail it out instead?
A: A telephone survey is a better solution for the following
reasons:
- It offers
increased validity (there will be less offbeat answers, less margin
responses, all the questions will be asked in the same manner, etc.)
- Fewer missing data
- Response rate will
increase, about 50%-70% as compared to about 30%.
- There is less
chance to have a select group mail back responses (i.e. maybe only
people who feel strongly one way about the issue will mail back the
survey). You can generally expect a better and more representative
mix of responses from a telephone survey.
- The hidden cost to
reach a 60% response rate with a mail survey is sometimes huge.
- The telephone
survey doesn't take as long as it looks. It ran about 7-12 minutes in
testing and looks long because questions are laid out for the
convenience of the interviewer.
We are discussing options for mail surveys.
Please contact your regional evaluation
specialists for more assistance.
6. Q:
Do we need to call all restaurants in our county (i.e. do we want a 100%
sample)?
A: How you implement the survey depends on your specific objectives.
In some areas a census sample is possible (and something that we
encourage), however sometimes sampling is a better strategy (contact your
regional evaluation specialist if you need help in determining an
appropriate sample size). For example, if you want to change an ordinance
or policy, a census sample may be most appropriate, however to obtain
baseline data, a random sample may be more appropriate. The "tips on implementing worksite policy
surveys" tipsheet provides more
information about sampling, as does the evaluation
planning portion of our website.
7. Q:
What sort of resources does it take to complete the survey?
A: Each survey will take 7-12 minutes to complete. To be safe double
this time estimate for each telephone interview. Based on the number of
surveys you want to complete, figure out how much time it will take to make
the calls. Compare this estimate to the volunteer or worker hours you have
available to see if it can be done. The Guide to conducting restaurant and worksite policy surveys
(will open in a new browser window) contains a more in depth discussion of
this process. The "tips on
implementing worksite policy surveys" tipsheet
provides more details on conducting a random sample.
8. Q:
What is the minimum number of restaurants I need to survey?
A: There is no "magic" minimum number needed. Again, this
depends on the purpose of your survey and what you want to do with the
results. There are methods to choose a sample size, but be careful in generalizing
a small sample to a larger population. See the UW Extension Sampling guide
for a discussion of sampling or speak with your regional evaluation
specialist.
9. You
need to use what will be most useful to you locally. Experience
tells us that what we have provided for you is what is needed for working
on ordinances. This information has been gathered from other states and
communities and shrunk down. The survey can be a good tool to engage
people.
10. Q:
Can we use this survey as a follow up to past surveys?
A: In general it is difficult to do follow up with a different
survey instrument, like comparing apples to oranges. Please show the
original instrument to our regional evaluation specialists and let them
assist you in determing if this will be possible.
- Q: What makes a
survey valid?
A: Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question.
Validity generally means that you are measuring what you think you
want to measure. There are a number of different kinds of validity.
For more information on defining "validity" in survey
research, see http://www.ryerson.ca/~mjoppe/ResearchProcess/Validity.htm
(will open in a new browser window)
You can increase the validity of survey results in several ways:
(see the ASA website (will open in a new browser
window) for more information)
- Good survey design.
- Good sampling or
selection of list of survey participants.
- Training and control
of interviewers. (i.e. Interviewers should
not provide comentary, they must always read
questions in the same manner, etc. For example, if an
interviewer were to begin talking about ETS
to the respondent, and was not sure about the topic themselves, they
could likely affect the response - Interviewers can influence the data
if not careful).
- Careful data
analysis - Don't generalize where you shouldn't.
- Reliability is
distinct from validity - It means that results are consistant
and can be reproduced over time
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