Open AccessThe Effects of Missing Data When Surveying Alcohol Habits
Author(s) -
Peter Wennberg,
Johan Svensson,
Mats Ramstedt
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
nordisk alkohol- and narkotikatidskrift
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1458-6126
pISSN - 1455-0725
DOI - 10.2478/v10199-011-0004-5
Subject(s) - alcohol , alcohol consumption , sample (material) , population , psychology , environmental health , demography , medicine , biochemistry , chemistry , chromatography , sociology
AIMS This study aimed at describing the effects of missing data when surveying alcohol consumption using a Random Digit Dialling procedure.Methods Data was part of the Monitor project including repeated monthly data on the alcohol habits in the general Swedish population. Non-respondents during four months were followed up a year later and asked to do a shortened telephone interview and were compared to a concurrent sample of respondents (n=2552 versus n=6005). Further, using a second approach, the monthly levels of non-response was related to the level of measured alcohol use in a time series analysis (n=67500).Results The results indicated no differences in the level of reported alcohol or tobacco use with except for a slightly higher proportion of alcohol abstainers in the sample of initial non-response. The time series showed no pattern of co-variation between the obtained non-response levels and the assessed levels of alcohol or tobacco use.Conclusions On the basis of the results it was meaningful to make a distinction between “soft” non-respondents (responding after extensive contacting effort) and “hard” non-respondents (not responding albeit extensive effort) and the results suggest that inclusion of the “soft” non-respondents does not by necessity lead to higher levels of assessed alcohol use.