Electronic Questionnaires Design and Implementation.

Background: Nursing and health care research are increasingly using e-questionnaires and e-forms for data collection and survey conduction. The main reason lies in costs, time and data-entry errors containment, increased flexibility, functionality and usability. In spite of this growing usage, no specifc and comprehensive guidelines for designing and submitting e-questionnaires have been produced so far.

Objective: The aim of this review is to collect information on the current best practices, taking them from various fields of application. An evaluation of the efficacy of the single indication is provided.

Method: A literature review of guidelines currently available on WebSM (Web Survey Methodology) about electronic questionnaire has been performed. Four search strings were used: "Electronic Questionnaire Design", "Electronic Questionnaire", "Online Questionnaire" and "Online survey". Articles' inclusion criteria were English language, relevant topic in relation to the aim of the research and the publication date from January 1998 to July 2014.

Results: The review process led to identify 48 studies. The greater part of guidelines is reported for Web, and e-mail questionnaire, while a lack of indications emerges especially for app and e-questionnaires.

Conclusion: Lack of guidelines on e-questionnaires has been found, especially in health care research, increasing the risk of use of ineffective and expensive instruments; more research in this field is needed.