Daily data collection: A comparison of three methods

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Abstract
This paper compares three methods for daily data collection to examine the co‐occurrence of intoxication and unsafe sex at the incident level. Sexually transmitted disease clinic clients and sexually active college students were randomized to complete either written daily diaries, daily telephone interviews they initiated, or daily telephone interviews initiated by project staff, for a period of 4 weeks. The three methods are compared on rates of retention, number of days missed, number of items missed, and respondents' self‐assessments of ease and accuracy of their responses. Dropout rates were low in all conditions. Respondents who initiated daily phone calls had the highest rate of missing days, and those in the written diary condition had the highest rate of missed items.