COMPARISON OF A SELF-ENUMERATIVE PROCEDURE AND A PERSONAL INTERVIEW: A VALIDITY STUDY

In: Public opinion quarterly: journal of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Band 27, Heft 2, S. 250-264

Abstract

A sample of 1000 persons who had been hosp'ed within the preceding yr was drawn from hospital records. The fam's of a random 50% of these persons were interviewed using the US Public Health Service's Nat'l Health Survey 1, which includes questions about the fam's hosp'tions. The remaining fam's were also interviewed, but questions about hosp'tion were deleted from the questionaire & placed in a self-enumerative form which the R filled out & returned by mail. Comparison of the hospital records with the R's' reports showed the % of hosp'tions reported & the accuracy of information given about them were comparable for the 2 samples, with one exception. Patterns of error were then compared. R's gave more accurate information about other adults in the self-enumerative form than in the interview. Contrary to expectations, hosp'tions involving conditions judged to be socially embarrassing were reported no better in self-enumerative form than in the interview. In the interview sample a marked relationship between educ of the R & accuracy of reporting was noted, while a relationship between 2 indices of R motivation & reporting accuracy was seen as most salient in the self-enumerative sample. The results suggest areas for res & improvements in survey data collection. AA.