The validity, reliability and generalizability of diary data

Abstract

There is need for reliable and valid behavioral measures for field research. Five sets of data were analyzed, in which diary as well as interview approaches were taken. Results suggest that scores derived from one-week diaries have satisfactory construct validity (convergent, predictive and nomological); that, for salient activities, they are less subjective to retrospective bias than are interview data and that, for this reason, interview-diary discrepancies may be useful for hypothesis testing. For items of neutral value, interview and diary provided remarkably similar values. A one-day diary was not an adequate substitute for a one-week diary. Attrition related to diary-keeping resulted in under-representation of certain groups (e.g., low income, little education, minority ethnicity, poor health), and conclusions would be different if based on diarists' responses or those of the intact sample.

Best practice in symptom assessment: a review

“…44 Diaries or questionnaires-which mode of data collection is best It is generally held that diaries are the ''gold standard'' method of collecting symptom data; rates of reporting minor symptoms are generally higher in diaries than in questionnaires, and the implicit assumption is that ''higher reporting is more accurate''. 37 However, adequate agreement between patterns of symptoms, as recorded in diaries and reported in questionnaires, has been demonstrated in a number of studies.…”

Activity patterns in very old people: a survey of cognitively intact subjects aged 90 years or older

“…These are, first, that it involves self-report of activities rather than objective observation [3] and secondly, that using a single day as a sample of a person's life is limited [32]. However, the time and cost of using objective observers would have been prohibitive and a 7-day diary would have probably resulted in incomplete data.…”

Process Diary as Methodological Approach in Longitudinal Phenomenological Research

“…Diaries therefore have less recall-error than other methods of data collection such as questionnaires and interviews. These latter instruments may yield data which is distorted owing to the retrospective views of informants (Carp & Carp, 1981;Richardson, 1994;Roghmann & Haggerty, 1972;Verbrugge, 1980).…”