Using data on interruptions in telephone service as coverage adjustments - ARCHIVED

Articles and reports: 12-001-X19960022985

Description:

Telephone surveys in the U.S. are subject to coverage bias because about 6 percent of all households do not have a telephone at any particular point in time. The bias resulting from this undercoverage can be important since those who do not have a telephone are generally poorer and have other characteristics that differ from the telephone population. Poststratification and the other usual methods of adjustment often do not fully compensate for this bias. This research examines a procedure for adjusting the survey estimates based on the observation that some households have a telephone for only part of the year, often due to economic circumstances. By collecting data on interruptions in telephone service in the past year, statistical adjustments of the estimates can be made which may reduce the bias in the estimates but which at the same time increase variances because of greater variability in weights. This paper considers a method of adjustment using data collected from a national telephone survey. Estimates of the reductions in bias and the effect on the mean square error of the estimates are computed for a variety of statistics. The results show that when the estimates from the survey are highly related to economic conditions the telephone interruption adjustment procedure can improve the mean square error of the estimates.

Issue Number: 1996002
Author(s): Brick, J. Michael; Keeter, S.; Waksberg, J.

Main Product: Survey Methodology

FormatRelease dateMore information
PDFDecember 16, 1996