Telephone Sampling Bias in Surveying Disability

In: Public opinion quarterly: journal of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Band 46, Heft 3, S. 392-407

Abstract

Results of the 1977/78 California Disability Survey (conducted by U of California research centers) indicate that telephone interviewing is well-suited for undertaking disability studies that provide: (1) estimates of subgroups of the disabled population, including those that are statistically rare; (2) information on current & anticipated areas of policy concern; & (3) information for geographic areas important in rehabilitation programs planning. Although these objectives necessitated a large sample size & a complex instrument, the costs & timeliness of telephone interviewing enabled the survey objectives to be reached. Both advantages of telephone interviewing, as well as biases inherent in its use are discussed. The magnitude of the bias from the omission of nontelephone households is assessed, & the results confirm that this omission introduces only minor biases into estimates for the total working-age population. A method of weighting is developed & illustrated. 3 Tables. AA.