The Effects of Measurement Error on Health Estimates in Web vs Face-to-Face National Health Surveys

Oregon Convention Center 

This report explores the differences for seven national health estimates from a web-based survey, the third round of the Research and Development Survey (RANDS 3, n=2,616), and an in-person survey, the 2019 National Health Interview Survey (2019 NHIS, n=31,997). The five physical health variables include ever diagnosed by a physician or other medical professional with asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure or hypertension, high cholesterol, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The two mental health variables are major depressive disorder (depression) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The statistical analysis included two main components: 1) comparing weighted estimates by data source and conducting Rao-Scott significance testing to detect initial evidence of significant differences by data source, and 2) building logistic regression models for each health outcome, and conducting Wald tests to determine statistical significance of interaction terms. The results find the estimates from the web survey are consistently higher than the in-person survey. One possible explanation is the web survey is less subject to social desirability bias.

web survey

face-to-face survey

total survey error

secondary data analysis

significance testing 

Survey Research Methods Section