Survey on Marine Protected AreasBack

Telephone interviews were conducted by interviewers under close supervision. All data were collected by our interviewers using a Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) system invented by the research team which allowed real-time data capture and consolidation. To ensure data quality, on top of on-site supervision, voice recording, screen capturing and camera surveillance were used to monitor the interviewers' performance.

Telephone numbers are randomly generated using known prefixes assigned to telecommunication services providers under the Numbering Plan provided by the Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA). Invalid numbers are then eliminated according to computer and manual dialing records to produce the final sample.

The target population of this survey was Cantonese speaking Hong Kong residents of age 18-65. When telephone contact was successfully established with a target household, one eligible subject was interviewed. If more than one eligible subject had been available, selection was made using the "next birthday rule" which selected the person who had his/her birthday next. The survey was conducted during the period of October 12 to December 2, 2016. A total of 1,558 eligible subjects were successfully interviewed. The effective response rate of this survey was 69.7%, and the standard sampling error for percentages based on this sample was less than 1.3 percentage points. In other words, the sampling error for all percentages using the total sample was less than plus/minus 2.5 percentage points at 95% confidence level.

The raw data of all surveys have each been rim-weighted according to provisional figures obtained from the Census and Statistics Department regarding the gender-age distribution of the Hong Kong population in 2016 mid-year and the educational attainment (highest level attended) distribution collected in the 2011 Census.