Johannes, Catherine B.Crawford, Sybil L.Woods, JudithGoldstein, Robert B.Tran, DinhMehrotra, SandhyaJohnson, Kevin B.Santoro, Nanette2022-08-232022-08-232000-05-162007-01-23Menopause. 2000 May-Jun;7(3):200-8.1072-3714 (Print)10810966https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/50643OBJECTIVES: This pilot study compared a prototype electronic menstrual calendar on a handheld computer with a paper calendar for data quality and participants' perceptions. DESIGN: Twenty-three women completed identical information about menstrual bleeding and symptoms using paper and electronic calendars for 1 month each. RESULTS: Use of the paper calendar resulted in more missing data than the electronic calendar for bleeding characteristics (13% vs. 4%) and symptoms (35% vs. 4%). The electronic calendar's ability to log data entries revealed retrospective entry for 61% of the data. Total data entry and cleaning time was reduced by 81% with the electronic calendar. Overall, participants preferred the electronic (70%) to the paper (22%) calendar. CONCLUSIONS: Data quality with conventional paper calendars may be poorer than recognized. The data-logging feature, unique to the electronic calendar, is critical for assessing data quality. Electronic menstrual calendars can be useful data collection tools for research in women's health.en-USComputers*ElectronicsFemaleHumans*Menstrual CycleMenstruationPaperPatient SatisfactionPilot ProjectsQuality ControlRecordsLife SciencesMedicine and Health SciencesWomen's StudiesJournal Articlehttps://escholarship.umassmed.edu/wfc_pp/17244771wfc_pp/17