Survey on Awareness of Ovarian Cancer of Hong Kong WomenBack

Research Background

In December 2016, Hong Kong Society of Clinical Oncology commissioned the Public Opinion Programme (POP) of The University of Hong Kong to conduct this “Survey on Awareness of Ovarian Cancer of Hong Kong Women” targeting Cantonese speaking Hong Kong women of age 18-64. The survey aimed to gauge Hong Kong women’s awareness of ovarian cancer.

The research instrument used in this study was designed entirely by the POP Team after consulting Hong Kong Society of Clinical Oncology, while both POP and Hong Kong Society of Clinical Oncology had equal say in the final instrument. Moreover, fieldwork operations, data collection and data analysis were conducted independently by the POP Team, without interference from any party. In other words, although the content of the questionnaire mainly came from the commissioning organization, POP was given full autonomy to design and conduct the survey, and POP would take full responsibility for all the findings reported herewith.

Research Design

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 women aged 18-64. 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 December 12, 2016 to January 3, 2017. A total of 508 respondents were successfully interviewed. The effective response rate of this survey was 80.5%, and the standard sampling error for percentages based on this sample was less than 2.2 percentage points. In other words, the sampling error for all percentages using the total sample was less than plus/minus 4.4 percentage points at 95% confidence level.