Computer Assisted Telephone Interview Centres (CATI)

One of the important methods of data capture in the CLSA design is the conduct of telephone interviews. The vast number of telephone interviews to be conducted on a recurring basis have led the CLSA investigators to choose Computer Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) technology as the most feasible and economical approach to conduct these interviews.Each CATI site will be responsible for contacting potential participants, interviewing them, and re-contacting participants if needed to ensure the return of the signed consent forms. The CATI sites will maintain a record of contact (ROC) to track the results of all call attempts. In addition, CATI sites will implement specified protocols to assure data accuracy, integrity and security. CATI is a hardware and software system in which interview questions are stored in computer memory, recalled in programmable sequences, and displayed for interviewers on the computer screen; interviewers directly key responses into the computer system. Complex questionnaire design is possible since the program controls branching and logic. For the interviewer, CATI simultaneously allows interviewing, data entry, simple coding and data cleaning.