Spreadsheet: 00f74f07-90bb-4ddb-a5c2-2192375a1e00
Sheet: Sheet1

[NAME] | Explanation | Internet Panel Survey I and II | The TCCU survey
Describe survey design | Describe target population, sample frame. Is the sample a convenience sample? (In “open” surveys this is most likely.) | In the surveys through a panel-registered Internet Survey company, we made all respondents and their families the survey subjects. | This survey recruited volunteer respondents using a food company website. The number of applicants within the application period was the total included.
IRB approval | Mention whether the study has been approved by an IRB. | Our study was approved by the Ethical Committee of Nara Medical University (Authorization Code: 220). | Our study was approved by the Ethical Committee of Nara Medical University (Authorization Code: 220).
Informed consent | Describe the informed consent process. Where were the participants told the length of time of the survey, which data were stored and where and for how long, who the investigator was, and the purpose of the study? | When the email for the participation request was put out to the panelist who was registering to Internet research company,   the length of time of the survey and purpose of the study were explained. | Information on the survey was on the food company homepage, when the participant was recruited.
Data protection | If any personal information was collected or stored, describe what mechanisms were used to protect unauthorized access. | Personal information was not offered to the researcher. | Personal information was not offered to the researcher.
Development and testing | State how the survey was developed, including whether the usability and technical functionality of the electronic questionnaire had been tested before fielding the questionnaire. | A prior test was not executed. | The usability and technical functionality of the electronic questionnaire had been tested before fielding the questionnaire.
Open survey versus closed survey | An “open survey” is a survey open for each visitor of a site, while a closed survey is only open to a sample which the investigator knows (password-protected survey). | closed survey | closed survey
Contact mode | Indicate whether or not the initial contact with the potential participants was made on the Internet. (Investigators may also send out questionnaires by mail and allow for Web-based data entry.) | The initial contact with the potential participants was made via the Internet. | Potential participants were invited to register from the website.
Advertising the survey | How/where was the survey announced or advertised? Some examples are offline media (newspapers), or online (mailing lists – If yes, which ones?) or banner ads (Where were these banner ads posted and what did they look like?). It is important to know the wording of the announcement as it will heavily influence who chooses to participate. Ideally the survey announcement should be published as an appendix. | Panelists registered to the Internet research company beforehand were asked to participate. | The survey was advertised by the banner of the order site of the customer of the food sales companies.
Web/E-mail | State the type of e-survey (eg, one posted on a Web site, or one sent out through e-mail). If it is an e-mail survey, were the responses entered manually into a database, or was there an automatic method for capturing responses? | Website survey | Website survey
Context | Describe the Web site (for mailing list/newsgroup) in which the survey was posted. What is the Web site about, who is visiting it, what are visitors normally looking for? Discuss to what degree the content of the Web site could pre-select the sample or influence the results. For example, a survey about vaccination on a anti-immunization Web site will have different results from a Web survey conducted on a government Web site | The Internet research company recruits respondents from the general population and a reward is given for taking part in a survey. As the respondents reported on household members as well as themselves, this would reduce bias regarding a particluar group who might be more likely to respond to internet surveys. | The customer site of a food sales company, on which the customer orders the commodity. There may be some bias because of fewer older persons being recruited.
Mandatory/voluntary | Was it a mandatory survey to be filled in by every visitor who wanted to enter the Web site, or was it a voluntary survey? | mandatory | mandatory
Incentives | Were any incentives offered (eg, monetary, prizes, or non-monetary incentives such as an offer to provide the survey results)? | ｙｅｓ | ｙｅｓ
Time/Date | In what timeframe were the data collected? | every 24 hours | every 24 hours
Randomization of items or questionnaires | To prevent biases items can be randomized or alternated. | no | no
Adaptive questioning | Use adaptive questioning (certain items, or only conditionally displayed based on responses to other items) to reduce number and complexity of the questions. | We used Adaptive questioning. | We used Adaptive questioning.
Number of Items | What was the number of questionnaire items per page? The number of items is an important factor for the completion rate. | 1 | 3
Number of screens (pages) | Over how many pages was the questionnaire distributed? The number of items is an important factor for the completion rate. | 5 | 2
Completeness check | It is technically possible to do consistency or completeness checks before the questionnaire is submitted. Was this done, and if “yes”, how (usually JAVAScript)? An alternative is to check for completeness after the questionnaire has been submitted (and highlight mandatory items). If this has been done, it should be reported. All items should provide a non-response option such as “not applicable” or “rather not say”, and selection of one response option should be enforced. | Consistency and completeness checks  were done before the questionnaire could be submitted by JAVA script. | Consistency and completeness checks were done before the questionnaire could be submitted by  [NAME] script.
Review step | State whether respondents were able to review and change their answers (eg, through a Back button or a Review step which displays a summary of the responses and asks the respondents if they are correct). | Respondents were able to review and change their answers. | Respondents were able to review and change their answers.
Unique site visitor | If you provide view rates or participation rates, you need to define how you determined a unique visitor. There are different techniques available, based on IP addresses or cookies or both. | We did not provide view rates. | We did not provide view rates.
View rate (Ratio unique site visitors/unique survey visitors) | Requires counting unique site visitors (not page views!) divided by the number of unique visitors of the first page of the survey. It is not unusual to have view rates of less than 0.1 % if the survey is voluntary. | - | -
Participation rate (Ratio unique survey page visitors/agreed to participate) | Count the unique number of visitors who visit the first page of the survey (or the informed consents page, if present) divided by the number of people who filled in the first survey page (or agreed to participate). This can also be called “recruitment” rate. | - | -
Completion rate ([NAME] agreed to participate/finished survey) | The number of people agreeing to participate (or submitting the first survey page) divided by the number of people submitting the last questionnaire page. This is only relevant if there is a separate “informed consent” page or if the survey goes over several pages. This is a measure for attrition. Note that “completion” can involve leaving questionnaire items blank. This is not a measure for how completely questionnaires were filled in. (If you need a measure for this, use the word “completeness rate”.) | - | -
Cookies used | Indicate whether cookies were used to assign a unique user identifier to each client computer. If so, mention the page on which the cookie was set and read, and how long the cookie was valid. Were duplicate entries avoided by preventing users access to the survey twice; or were duplicate database entries having the same user ID eliminated before analysis? In the latter case, which entries were kept for analysis (eg, the first entry or the most recent)? | Cookies were  not used to assign these. | Cookies were  not used to assign these.
IP check | Indicate whether the IP address of the client computer was used to identify potential duplicate entries from the same user. If so, mention the period of time for which no two entries from the same IP address were allowed (eg, 24 hours). Were duplicate entries avoided by preventing users with the same IP address access to the survey twice; or were duplicate database entries having the same IP address within a given period of time eliminated before analysis? If the latter, which entries were kept for analysis (eg, the first entry or the most recent)? | The IP address of the client computer was not used to identify potential duplicate entries from the same user. | The IP address of the client computer was not used to identify potential duplicate entries from the same user.
Log file analysis | Indicate whether other techniques to analyze the log file for identification of multiple entries were used. If so, please describe. | We did not need to do it because our investigation is a “closed” (non-open) survey. | We did not need to do it because our investigation is a “closed” (non-open) survey.
Registration | In “closed” (non-open) surveys, users need to login first and it is easier to prevent duplicate entries from the same user. Describe how this was done. For example, was the survey never displayed a second time once the user had filled it in, or was the username stored together with the survey results and later eliminated? If the latter, which entries were kept for analysis (eg, the first entry or the most recent)? | The survey was never displayed a second time. | The username  was stored together with the survey results and later eliminated. The most recent entries were kept for analysis.
Handling of incomplete questionnaires | Were only completed questionnaires analyzed? Were questionnaires which terminated early (where, for example, users did not go through all questionnaire pages) also analyzed? | We analyzed only completed questionnaires | We analyzed only completed questionnaires
Questionnaires submitted with an atypical timestamp | Some investigators may measure the time people needed to fill in a questionnaire and exclude questionnaires that were submitted too soon. Specify the timeframe that was used as a cut-off point, and describe how this point was determined. | We did not do this. | We did not do this.
Statistical correction | Indicate whether any methods such as weighting of items or propensity scores have been used to adjust for the non-representative sample; if so, please describe the methods. | We did not do this. | We did not do this.