The comments of dentists contributed in congresses in the field of dentistry on questionnaire-based researches, Tehran, Iran, 2015

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The questionnaire includes a category of questions that has been prepared based on some certain principles and dentists are requested to complete this form. The aim of this study was the investigation of dentists’ opinions about researches based on questionnaires. METHODS: The present investigation was a descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study. The questionnaire, which was designed by the researcher, was distributed among 400 participants of congresses by the researchers as group-performance containing personal questions including age, year of graduation, educational degree, and etcetera, general questions, and questions related to dentists' comments about questionnaire researches. The results obtained from this research were analyzed using t-test and chi-square test in SPSS software. RESULTS: In this evaluation, 400 questionnaires were distributed among 400 dentists; of this number, 305 questionnaires were returned (Response rate = 76.25). Of the participants, 125 people were male (40.9%) and 180 people were female (59.1%) (Ratio of male to female = 0.69). This research indicated that 100% of the participants had previously participated in a research in which the data collection tool was a questionnaire. Moreover, 290 dentists (95.0%) announced that the number of questions in the questionnaire affects their responsiveness. This research showed that there is a significant relation between questions of attitude and age (P = 0.01), gender (P = 0.02), and educational degree (P = 0.01). Furthermore, from the viewpoint of women (P = 0.02) and younger people (P = 0.01), the number of questions in the questionnaire and the person who provides the questionnaire affect their responsiveness. CONCLUSION: The present research revealed that more than half of the participants believed that using a questionnaire in research studies is a suitable method; however, 72.0% of participants had a contrary opinion. In addition, 32.7% of participants had very inclination toward participation in such investigations.