Using paper questionnaires, data is collected by an enumerator, then captured manually into a data entry screen. This is not only a time consuming process but also results in two types of errors

• Enumerators not following the relevant skip instructions or leaving out entire questions.

• Errors made by data entry clerks when capturing data.

Some of the advantages of using PDAs are as follows

Time savings

With PDAs

• The data is immediately available for analysis
• There is no need for data entry clerks
• There is no need for data cleaning

Reduction of errors

With PDAs:

• If a question needs to be skipped this is enforced by the PDA i.e. if a household has no children, skip the schooling question
• Fields can be made compulsory giving you no opportunity to forget to fill in a field
• Answers can be limited to a list of potential possibilities
• Due to the fact that no data capturing happens from paper to the data base, there are no data entry/illegible handwriting errors

Economies of Scale

With PDAs:


• There is no need for additional data entry or data capturers
• The same PDAs can be used and re-used for other data collection systems
• Unlike paper questionnaires, there is no cost involved with increasing the number of people questioned