25-year Trends and Socio-demographic Differences in Response Rates: Finnish Adult Health Behaviour Survey

Abstract

When estimating population level changes in health indicators, the declining response rate, especially if also the characteristics of non-respondents are changing may bias the outcome. There is evidence that survey response rates are declining in many countries. It is also known that respondents and non-respondents differ in their socio-economic and demographic status as well as in their health and health behaviours. There is no information about the changes in the differences between respondents and non-respondents over time. Our purpose was to investigate the changes over time in the differences between respondents and non-respondents in respect to their sex, age, marital status and educational level. The data from the Finnish Adult Health Behaviour Survey (1978-2002) was used. The response rate declined over the past 25 years for both men and women in all age groups. The decline was faster among men than women, and also faster in younger age groups than older age groups. There is a marked difference in the response rate between married and non-married persons but it did not change over time. Also the response rate between different educational levels differed for both men and women, and this difference increased over the years. The declining response rate and at the same time occurring change in the non-respondent characteristics will decrease the representativeness of the results, limit the comparability of the results with other surveys, increase the bias of the trend estimates and limit the comparability of the results between population groups.

Interactive Voice Response and web-based questionnaires for population-based infectious disease reporting

“…On average, the participants were older, had a higher degree of education and were more represented by women than the total sample. This distribution of sociodemographic characteristics among responders vs. non-responders has been demonstrated in other epidemiological studies (18)(19)(20) and seems to be a growing methodological problem (19;21;22). However, in view of the rather heavy commitment expected from the participants in the present study, participation rate in the lower range of what is presently seen in epidemiological studies with active participation of healthy people was foreseen.…”

A 12-year Trend of Psychological Distress: National Study of Finnish University Students

“…Daily smoking was more common in the non-respondents, whereas the respondents were more often involved in leisure activities such as sport (24). Declining response rates during recent decades seems to be a world-wide problem especially in men (26,27). In this study, the comparability of the surveys in different years is ensured by the fact that the methods of measuring psychological distress, the timing of the survey and the sampling procedures were similar from one survey to another and the surveys were conducted in the same universities.…”

Trends of socioeconomic differences in daily vegetable consumption, 1979–2002

“…The average, albeit declining, response rate over the 1978-2002 period was 70% among men and 80% among women (Helakorpi et al, 2004). The response rate declined over the past 25 years for both men and women in all age groups (Tolonen et al, 2006). The decline has been faster among men than women, and also faster in younger age groups than older ones.…”