Data collection

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PALS screening questions
Proxy and non-proxy interviews
Proxy rates for PALS 2006
Reasons for proxy
Collection of child questionnaire
Collection time frame
Response rates
Collection issues

PALS screening questions

The PALS interview begins with a disability identification module: the two disability filter questions and a series of detailed questions on activity limitations. The interview continues with follow-up questions related to the limitation if this identification module reveals the presence of a disability. This identification happens through a positive answer to at least one question. If a positive answer is not given, the respondent is streamed to the false positive module where they are asked questions to assist in determining why they had reported positively to a filter question on the census but no longer report an activity limitation on PALS.

The PALS screening questions ask the respondent about individual types of limitations such as, vision, hearing, mobility, agility, pain, memory, learning, and developmental and emotional or psychological conditions.  For those who trigger a limitation, questions are asked about the main condition.

Proxy and non-proxy interviews

When an interview is conducted with the actual respondent, the interview is considered to be a "non-proxy" interview. However, in some situations, there may be the need for someone to answer the survey on behalf of the respondent. In these cases, the interview is considered to be a "proxy" interview.

In the adult questionnaire for PALS 2006, every effort was made to contact the respondent directly. If the respondent was not available when the interviewer called, follow up attempts were made. When proxy interviews were required, someone else such as a spouse, parent, child or care giver responded on their behalf.

In the PALS 2006 child questionnaire, the respondent targeted to participate in the survey on behalf of the child under the age of 15 was a parent or guardian. In other words, an interview is considered as being a non-proxy interview when the parent or the guardian of the child answers the survey. However, in some cases, this person was not available and the interview was administered to another household member or someone else. In those cases, the interview was considered to be a proxy interview.

A proxy is selected when:

• The respondent is absent for the duration of the survey.
• The respondent cannot speak English or French.
• The respondent cannot participate due to a physical or mental condition.
• A parent wants to respond for his or her 15 to 18-year-old child.

People who are serving as a proxy in an interview need to meet the following requirements:

• Be an adult who can speak either English or French.
• Be available to be contacted during the collection of the survey.
• Be one of the most knowledgeable persons regarding the difficulties and challenges the person faces as a result of their activity and participation limitations.
• When a person starts as the proxy in an interview, that same person has to finish it. The proxy cannot switch partway through the interview.

In many cases the proxy lives in the same household and may be related to the individual. However, it is possible that the proxy may be an older sibling, guardian, parent, grandparent, adult child or a home care/ health care provider who does not live in the same household. In circumstances such as this, the person who is able to provide the best data quality would be used as the proxy.

Proxy rates for PALS 2006

Overall, the proxy rate among those aged 15 and above was 12.1%. Among adolescents and adults, the bulk of proxy respondents consisted of parents, spouses and partners, and adult children.

As Chart 2 illustrates, proxy respondents in the high proxy rate age groups were more likely to report health problems, physical conditions or mental conditions as the reason for why a proxy was necessary. Consequently, the proxy rates follow a bowl-shaped pattern with the youngest age group, 15 to 24 year olds, and oldest age group, those over 75 years of age, relying on proxies most frequently. For the former group, parents were much more likely to answer on behalf of their adolescent children whereas for the oldest age group, adult children were most likely to answer on behalf of their elderly parents.

Reasons for proxy

The most cited reason among respondents age 15 and above for using a proxy was the presence of a health problem, physical condition, or mental condition. Nearly 60% of proxy respondents were unable to complete the survey themselves for this reason. The existence of a language barrier was the next most common issue, affecting 14.8% of proxy respondents. A similar proportion of adolescent proxy respondents (under the age of 18) and dependent adults had their parents choose to answer the survey on their behalf (9.4% and 8.3% respectively).

Collection of child questionnaire

The Child Questionnaire is used to interview the parents or guardians of children who were under 15 years of age on May 16, 2006. All child interviews are usually completed by a parent or guardian of the child. If parent or guardian is unable to complete the questionnaire for any reason, a proxy can take their place otherwise the interview ends. The child is never asked to answer the survey.

Collection time frame

The original collection period was October 30, 2006 to January 31, 2007 but an extension for collection was granted to February 28, 2007. This extension resulted in a 3.9% increase in the response rate for the Adult Survey and a 4.9% increase for the Child Survey.

Response rates

The response rate for the children at the end of collection was 79.7%. The response rate for the adults was slightly lower at 73.9%. When combining the two rates, the overall response rate for the PALS 2006 was 74.9%. The following tables provide the response rates by province and different age groups.

As shown in Table 2, it was more difficult to obtain an answer from younger adults aged 20 to 34 and older people aged 85 and over. This is a trend that is consistent with other social surveys.

Collection issues

There are always challenges when conducting interviews for a survey as large scale as PALS. In the 2006 collection, there were issues concerning tracing. There were a number of cases that were difficult to trace or were not traceable at all. The number of these cases was relatively high for the PALS 2006. Tracing respondents is quite demanding in terms of resources and time. For post-censal surveys like PALS, there is a dependency on the accuracy of contact information provided on the Census forms.

PALS also encountered some unique collection challenges in the territories. Many households do not have telephones and a number of respondents speak only Aboriginal languages. Because of this, many interviews had to be transferred to other regional offices where more interviewers were able to speak Aboriginal languages. This transferring of cases assisted in the successful completion of a number of such interviews.

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