Addressing Participant Validity in a Small Internet Health Survey (The Restore Study): Protocol and Recommendations for Survey Response Validation

DeWitt, James; Capistrant, Benjamin D.; Kohli, Nidhi; Rosser, B. R. Simon; Mitteldorf, Darryl; Merengwa, Enyinnaya; West, William

doi:10.2196/resprot.7655

Cited by 52 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 24 publications

(27 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Dewitt et al [ 37 ] states internet-based research as “advantageous to essential” in recruiting niche communities; but that it also brings forth a new validation issue that the researcher will never meet their participants. This can lead to the same participant completing the survey multiple times and ineligible participants completing the survey.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘All Ears’: A Questionnaire of 1516 Owner Perceptions of the Mental Abilities of Pet Rabbits, Subsequent Resource Provision, and the Effect on Welfare

McMahon

Wigham

2020

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pet rabbit welfare is a hidden crisis: Inappropriately housed, fed, and not routinely provided healthcare—rabbits can often suffer painful conditions and shortened lifespans. This study provides novel understanding of owners’ perceptions of rabbits’ mental capabilities; how this impacts their husbandry; and subsequent effects on rabbits’ welfare. A survey was designed to investigate owner and rabbit demographics, owner perception of rabbits, resources provided, and rabbit behavior. Distributed online and by the Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund, the survey received 1516 responses. It was found that increased owner perceptions of pain, emotions. and intelligence resulted in increased likelihood of providing a partner, increased enrichment variation, and a more appropriate diet and type of housing. Welfare scores were associated with diet, housing, variety of enrichment, and time spent with owners. These results suggest that a practical approach to improving the welfare standard provided to rabbits may be to target improving owner perceptions of the species’ intelligence, emotionality, and experience of pain. This information would be beneficial in tailoring public education programs to increase provision of welfare enhancing resources, improve the human–animal relationship, and thus improve the welfare standards for this species.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘All Ears’: A Questionnaire of 1516 Owner Perceptions of the Mental Abilities of Pet Rabbits, Subsequent Resource Provision, and the Effect on Welfare

McMahon

Wigham

2020

Animals

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Studies have found that specific ailments associated with HIV, such as cardiovascular disease, mental illness, or hormonal imbalances, are associated with poor rehabilitation after prostate cancer treatment . In addition, mental and physical comorbidities have been associated with poor HRQOL in people living with HIV . However, it is unclear why these comorbidities did not also lead to an association between HIV and overall HRQOL.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fraudulent responses (n = 289) were excluded from analysis. Procedures to identify duplicitous participants are described elsewhere …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Health‐related quality of life by human immunodeficiency virus status in a cross‐sectional survey of gay and bisexual prostate cancer survivors

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective Prostate cancer is the most common invasive cancer in gay and bisexual men (GBM). Despite the unique sexual and urinary concerns of this group, studies of prostate cancer rehabilitation have primarily focused on heterosexual men. GBM also have high prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which may be associated with lower health‐related quality of life (HRQOL). We examined the association between HIV status and HRQOL in a cohort of GBM with prostate cancer. Methods Data from the Restore study, a cross‐sectional online survey of GBM treated for prostate cancer, were used to examine this association. The Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC) assessed function, bother, and summary measures in four domains: urinary, sexual, bowel, and hormone. Overall physical and mental HRQOL was assessed using the Short‐Form Health Survey (SF‐12). Multivariate analysis of variance and linear regression were used to evaluate the association between HIV status and HRQOL scores after adjustment for demographic and sexual characteristics. Results Of 192 participants, 24 (12.4%) reported an HIV diagnosis. After adjustment for covariates, HIV‐positive status was associated with lower scores on the EPIC urinary (mean difference [MD]: −13.0, 95% CI, −21.4 to −4.6), sexual (MD: −12.5, 95% CI, −21.9 to −3.2), and bowel (MD: −5.9, 95% CI, −11.7 to −0.2) domains. No significant associations were observed between HIV status and other outcomes. Conclusions HIV status may be associated with poorer urinary, sexual, and bowel HRQOL in GBM prostate cancer survivors.

show abstract

“…In addition, the survey did not use a tool like a Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, which could have reduced fraud by requiring respondents to verify that they were not robots [30]. However, previous research has demonstrated that Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart tool verification is not failproof and can be passed despite an entry being invalid or fraud [21].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The confidentiality and anonymity of Web-based research make it difficult to prevent such entries, posing a threat to data integrity if appropriate data quality protocols are not in place [4,7,13-15,17-20]. Bots and smart software that have the capability to produce human-like data with unique Internet Protocol (IP) addresses can also lead to invalid or fraudulent data [21]. Computer program (ie, bots) and human fraud must both, therefore, be considered in fraud identification strategies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fraud Detection Protocol for Web-Based Research Among Men Who Have Sex With Men: Development and Descriptive Evaluation

Ballard

Cardwell

Young

2019

JMIR Public Health Surveill

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Internet is becoming an increasingly common tool for survey research, particularly among “hidden” or vulnerable populations, such as men who have sex with men (MSM). Web-based research has many advantages for participants and researchers, but fraud can present a significant threat to data integrity. Objective The purpose of this analysis was to evaluate fraud detection strategies in a Web-based survey of young MSM and describe new protocols to improve fraud detection in Web-based survey research. Methods This study involved a cross-sectional Web-based survey that examined individual- and network-level risk factors for HIV transmission and substance use among young MSM residing in 15 counties in Central Kentucky. Each survey entry, which was at least 50% complete, was evaluated by the study staff for fraud using an algorithm involving 8 criteria based on a combination of geolocation data, survey data, and personal information. Entries were classified as fraudulent, potentially fraudulent, or valid. Descriptive analyses were performed to describe each fraud detection criterion among entries. Results Of the 414 survey entries, the final categorization resulted in 119 (28.7%) entries identified as fraud, 42 (10.1%) as potential fraud, and 253 (61.1%) as valid. Geolocation outside of the study area (164/414, 39.6%) was the most frequently violated criterion. However, 33.3% (82/246) of the entries that had ineligible geolocations belonged to participants who were in eligible locations (as verified by their request to mail payment to an address within the study area or participation at a local event). The second most frequently violated criterion was an invalid phone number (94/414, 22.7%), followed by mismatching names within an entry (43/414, 10.4%) and unusual email addresses (37/414, 8.9%). Less than 5% (18/414) of the entries had some combination of personal information items matching that of a previous entry. Conclusions This study suggests that researchers conducting Web-based surveys of MSM should be vigilant about the potential for fraud. Researchers should have a fraud detection algorithm in place prior to data collection and should not rely on the Internet Protocol (IP) address or geolocation alone, but should rather use a combination of indicators.

show abstract

Addressing Participant Validity in a Small Internet Health Survey (The Restore Study): Protocol and Recommendations for Survey Response Validation

Cited by 52 publications

References 24 publications

‘All Ears’: A Questionnaire of 1516 Owner Perceptions of the Mental Abilities of Pet Rabbits, Subsequent Resource Provision, and the Effect on Welfare

‘All Ears’: A Questionnaire of 1516 Owner Perceptions of the Mental Abilities of Pet Rabbits, Subsequent Resource Provision, and the Effect on Welfare

Health‐related quality of life by human immunodeficiency virus status in a cross‐sectional survey of gay and bisexual prostate cancer survivors

Fraud Detection Protocol for Web-Based Research Among Men Who Have Sex With Men: Development and Descriptive Evaluation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About