The Korea Local Administration Review

Creating and conducting a valid and reliable opinion poll survey is not aneasy but highly important task, especially when the surveys are to be used asa tool for decision-making to implement local public health programs. Inparticular, for programs that have low awareness among local residents but mayhave a major impact on citizens' life, developing a scientific method to conductvalid and reliable polls becomes more critical. In this study, we took amixed-methods approach: We conducted focus group interviews with 22 peopleand surveys of a semi-experimental design with 1,200 randomly selectedrespondents. Our analysis showed that local residents' attitudes and awarenessof the water fluoridation programs changed substantially depending on thetypes, order of presentation, and amount of information provided. Similarly,polling methods and respondent characteristics were found to affect surveyresults. A high proportion of respondents showed their strong willingness toparticipate in decision-making.
□ Keywords: local health policy, opinion poll, water flouridation