Questionnaire Database Normalization

[egerda]

Hi,
I'm bulding a survey database. I have about 75 questions
(items) to which answers are mostly multiple choice
single selection (radio buttons). There is one item which
is a text box for entering user age (whole number), and
one item which is multiple choice multiple selection
(check boxes).

Several of the questions have additional questions
dependant on them, i.e, if a particular selection is made
in question1 (for example, for the question "Have you had
any sleeping difficulties?" the option "Yes" is selected)
an additional question (question2) is added ("is this
condition present for more than a month?"

My problem is a design problem. I can create 75 fields,
one for each question, and insert the full survey session
answers into a single row. It makes intuitive sense and
the design is simple. However, 75 fields seem like a lot
of fields for a single table. Also, I may be repeating
data.

Do you have any suggestions? And also, how will the
Access database will handle such a big table?

Thank you,
Danny.

 

[Adrian Jansen]

Have a look at

http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/duanehookom/duanehookom.htm.

for some ideas.

--
Regards,

Adrian Jansen
J & K MicroSystems
Microcomputer solutions for industrial control

 

[Tim Ferguson]

Several of the questions have additional questions
dependant on them, i.e, if a particular selection is made
in question1 (for example, for the question "Have you had
any sleeping difficulties?" the option "Yes" is selected)
an additional question (question2) is added ("is this
condition present for more than a month?"

This is usually a symptom of not having worked out the informatics. This is
one question with mutually exclusive answers:

Sleeping difficulties: None
Less than a month
More than a month

and that is how the database should code the answer. If you try to do it as
two questions, you will get respondents who are recorded as saying No and
More Than A Month.

HTH

Tim F