Response of sensitive behaviors to frequent measurement

Does participating in a long-term cohort study impact research subjects' longevity? Experimental evidence from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study

There is considerable evidence that the act of participating in a survey can alter participants' attitudes, behaviors, and other outcomes in meaningful ways. Considering findings that this form of panel conditioning also impacts health behaviors and outcomes, we investigated the effect of participating in an intensive half-century-long cohort study on participants' longevity. To do so, we used data from a 1957 survey of more than 33,000 Wisconsin high school seniors linked to mortality records. One third of those people were selected at random to participate in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS); the other two thirds were never again contacted. Our survival models show no evidence of panel conditioning effects on longevity: People selected at random to participate in the WLS had the same mortality outcomes as their peers who were not selected. This finding holds for the full sample, for women, for men, for population subgroups defined by family socioeconomic origins and educational experiences, and for treatment compliers.

Konditionierungseffekte in Panel-Untersuchungen

Zusammenfassung. Paneldaten sind für die Untersuchung kausaler Zusammenhänge und die Beantwortung längsschnittlicher Fragestellungen unverzichtbar. Es ist allerdings umstritten, welchen Effekt die wiederholte Befragung von Panelteilnehmern auf die Qualität von Paneldaten hat. Der zu erwartende Lerneffekt der Teilnehmer bei wiederholter Teilnahme wird als Panelkonditionierung bezeichnet und kann sowohl positive als auch negative Folgen für die Validität der Paneldaten aufweisen. Insbesondere bei sensitiven Items werden Auswirkungen auf die soziale Erwünschtheit der gemachten Angaben erwartet. Die verfügbare Evidenz zu Konditionierungseffekten bei sensitiven Fragen legt unterschiedliche Effekte je nach Art der Frage nahe und wurde bisher lediglich in Form narrativer Reviews aufgearbeitet. In der vorliegenden Meta-Analyse werden anhand der verfügbaren experimentellen Evidenz (154 Effektstärken aus 19 Berichten) Konditionierungseffekte in Abhängigkeit von der Art der Frage, sowie der Häufigkeit und der Abstände zwischen den Erhebungen (Dosiseffekte) untersucht. Standardisierte Mittelwertunterschiede zwischen wiederholt teilnehmenden und erstmalig teilnehmenden Probanden werden mittels Mehrebenen-Meta-Regressionen analysiert. Dabei zeigen sich nur geringe Effekte vorheriger Befragungen auf das Antwortverhalten in Folgewellen. Nach aktuellem Stand kann daher davon ausgegangen werden, dass die Qualität von Paneldaten nicht in relevantem Maße von Konditionierungseffekten beeinflusst wird. Grenzen der vorliegenden Meta-Analyse und relevante Forschungslücken werden diskutiert. Eine englische Übersetzung als Rohfassung dieses Artikels finden Sie als Elektronisches Supplement 1. ESM1 .

The utility of a follow-up interview for respondents to a longitudinal survey with frequent measurement

Social processes that change quickly are difficult to study, because they require frequent survey measurement. Weekly, daily, or even hourly measurement may be needed depending on the topic. With more frequent measurement comes the prospect of more complex patterns of missing data. The mechanisms creating the missing data may be varied, ranging from technical issues such as lack of an Internet connection to refusal to complete a requested survey. We examine one approach to mitigating the damage of these missing data - a follow-up or closeout interview that is completed after the frequent measurement. The Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study used this approach. The study asked women weekly about their attitudes and behaviors related to sexual relationships and pregnancy. The surveys were carried out for 130 weeks and concluded with a closeout interview. We explore the patterns of missing data in the RDSL study and then examine associations between the data collected in the closeout survey and key variables collected in the weekly survey. We then assess the extent to which data from the closeout survey are useful in repairing the damage caused by missing data.

Web Health Monitoring Survey: A New Approach to Enhance the Effectiveness of Telemedicine Systems

BACKGROUND

Aging of the European population and interest in a healthy population in western countries have contributed to an increase in the number of health surveys, where the role of survey design, data collection, and data analysis methodology is clear and recognized by the whole scientific community. Survey methodology has had to couple with the challenges deriving from data collection through information and communications technology (ICT). Telemedicine systems have not used patients as a source of information, often limiting them to collecting only biometric data. A more effective telemonitoring system would be able to collect objective and subjective data (biometric parameters and symptoms reported by the patients themselves), and to control the quality of subjective data collected: this goal be achieved only by using and merging competencies from both survey methodology and health research.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of our study was to propose new metrics to control the quality of data, along with the well-known indicators of survey methodology. Web questionnaires administered daily to a group of patients for an extended length of time are a Web health monitoring survey (WHMS) in a telemedicine system.

METHODS

We calculated indicators based on paradata collected during a WHMS study involving 12 patients, who signed in to the website daily for 2 months.

RESULTS

The patients' involvement was very high: the patients' response rate ranged between 1.00 and 0.82, with an outlier of 0.65. Item nonresponse rate was very low, ranging between 0.0% and 7.4%. We propose adherence to the chosen time to connect to the website as a measure of involvement and cooperation by the patients: the difference from the median time ranged between 11 and 24 minutes, demonstrating very good cooperation and involvement from all patients. To measure habituation to the questionnaire, we also compared nonresponse rates to the items between the first and the second month of the study, and found no significant difference. We computed the time to complete the questionnaire both as a measure of possible burden for patient, and to detect the risk of automatic responses. Neither of these hypothesis was confirmed, and differences in time to completion seemed to depend on health conditions. Focus groups with patients confirmed their appreciation for this "new" active role in a telemonitoring system.

CONCLUSIONS

The main and innovative aspect of our proposal is the use of a Web questionnaire to virtually recreate a checkup visit, integrating subjective (patient's information) with objective data (biometric information). Our results, although preliminary and if need of further study, appear promising in proposing more effective telemedicine systems. Survey methodology could have an effective role in this growing field of research and applications.

Maximizing Data Quality using Mode Switching in Mixed-Device Survey Design: Nonresponse Bias and Models of Demographic Behavior

Conducting survey interviews on the internet has become an attractive method for lowering data collection costs and increasing the frequency of interviewing, especially in longitudinal studies. However, the advantages of the web mode for studies with frequent re-interviews can be offset by the serious disadvantage of low response rates and the potential for nonresponse bias to mislead investigators. Important life events, such as changes in employment status, relationship changes, or moving can cause attrition from longitudinal studies, producing the possibility of attrition bias. The potential extent of such bias in longitudinal web surveys is not well understood. We use data from the Relationship Dynamics and Social Life (RDSL) study to examine the potential for a mixed-device approach with active mode switching to reduce attrition bias. The RDSL design allows panel members to switch modes by integrating telephone interviewing into a longitudinal web survey with the objective of collecting weekly reports. We found that in this design allowing panel members to switch modes kept more participants in the study compared to a web only approach. The characteristics of persons who ever switched modes are different than those who did not - including not only demographic characteristics, but also baseline characteristics related to pregnancy and time-varying characteristics that were collected after the baseline interview. This was true in multivariate models that control for multiple of these dimensions simultaneously. We conclude that mode options and mode switching is important for the success of longitudinal web surveys to maximize participation and minimize attrition.

Evaluating a Modular Design Approach to Collecting Survey Data Using Text Messages

This article presents analyses of data from a pilot study in Nepal that was designed to provide an initial examination of the errors and costs associated with an innovative methodology for survey data collection. We embedded a randomized experiment within a long-standing panel survey, collecting data on a small number of items with varying sensitivity from a probability sample of 450 young Nepalese adults. Survey items ranged from simple demographics to indicators of substance abuse and mental health problems. Sampled adults were randomly assigned to one of three different modes of data collection: 1) a standard one-time telephone interview, 2) a "single sitting" back-and-forth interview with an interviewer using text messaging, and 3) an interview using text messages within a modular design framework (which generally involves breaking the survey response task into distinct parts over a short period of time). Respondents in the modular group were asked to respond (via text message exchanges with an interviewer) to only one question on a given day, rather than complete the entire survey. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses demonstrate that the two text messaging modes increased the probability of disclosing sensitive information relative to the telephone mode, and that respondents in the modular design group, while responding less frequently, found the survey to be significantly easier. Further, those who responded in the modular group were not unique in terms of available covariates, suggesting that the reduced item response rates only introduced limited nonresponse bias. Future research should consider enhancing this methodology, applying it with other modes of data collection (e. g., web surveys), and continuously evaluating its effectiveness from a total survey error perspective.