Can Internet Match High-quality Traditional Surveys? Comparing the Health and Retirement Study and its Online Version

Angrisani, Marco; Finley, Brian; Kapteyn, Arie

doi:10.1108/s0731-905320190000039001

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In our study sample, 4.4% of the respondents were provided with an Internet-connected tablet at the time of recruitment in order to address the "digital divide" between different population groups (S1 Table). A comparison of UAS data with data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) shows that UAS lines up well with the CPS on a number of common variables, and matches the quality of the HRS, a traditional survey considered as the gold standard in social research [24,25]. Additional details about UAS are provided in S1 Appendix.…”

Section: Understanding America Study (Uas)mentioning

confidence: 82%

“…The model specifications also included time fixed effects (in days) to capture the influence of aggregate effects, such as public announcements at the federal level or national news, that are shared among UAS respondents on a given day. Our analysis used post-stratification weights, generated through a raking algorithm, to align the sample to the US adult population in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, age, education and geographic location (see https://uasdata.usc.edu/page/ Weights and [24]). Analysis was performed with StataSE 14.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Predictors of mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic in the US: Role of economic concerns, health worries and social distancing

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite the profound health and economic implications of Covid-19, there is only limited knowledge to date about the role of economic concerns, health worries and social distancing for mental health outcomes during the pandemic. We analyze online survey data from the nationally representative “Understanding America Study” (UAS) covering the period of March 10-31st 2020 (sample size: 6,585). Mental health is assessed by the validated PHQ-4 instrument for measuring symptoms of depression and anxiety. About 29% (CI:27.4-.30.4%) of the US adult population reported some depression/anxiety symptoms over the study period, with symptoms deteriorating over the month of March. Worsening mental health was most strongly associated with concerns about the economic consequences of the pandemic, while concerns about the potential implications of the virus for respondents’ own health and social distancing also predicted increases in symptoms of depression and anxiety during the early stages of the pandemic in the US, albeit less strongly. Our findings point towards the possibility of a major mental health crisis unfolding simultaneously with the pandemic, with economic concerns being a key driving force of this crisis. These results highlight the likely importance of economic countermeasures and social policy for mitigating the impact of Covid-19 on adult mental health in the US over and above an effective public health response.

show abstract

Section: Understanding America Study (Uas)mentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predictors of mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic in the US: Role of economic concerns, health worries and social distancing

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several studies have shown that even with relatively low response rates probabilitybased Internet panels provide superior information to convenience panels [19,20]. A comparison of UAS data with Current Population Survey (CPS) and Health and Retirement Study (HRS) data [21] shows that UAS data line up quite well with the CPS on a number of common variables, and there is no clear evidence that UAS compares less favorably to the CPS than the HRS, which is traditionally considered as a gold standard in social research.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Know your epidemic, know your response: Early perceptions of COVID-19 and self-reported social distancing in the United States

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As COVID-19 is rapidly unfolding in the United States, it is important to understand how individuals perceive the health and economic risks of the pandemic. In the absence of a readily available medical treatment, any strategy to contain the virus in the US will depend on the behavioral response of US residents. In this paper, we study individual's perceptions on COVID-19 and social distancing during the week of March 10-16, 2020, a week when COVID-19 was officially declared to be a pandemic by WHO and when new infections in the US were more than doubling every three days. Using a nationally representative sample of 5,414 respondents 18+ years of age from the Understanding America Study (UAS), we find that perceptions about COVID-19 health risks and economic consequences in the US population were largely pessimistic and highly variable by age and education. US residents who are young and do not have a college degree perceived a lower risk of getting infected but a higher probability of running out of money than others. Most individuals reported taking some steps to distance themselves from others but important differences emerge by gender and by source of information on COVID-19. Using state and day fixed-effect regressions, we show that perceptions of the health risks closely followed the number of COVID-19 cases in the country, and perceptions of the economic consequences and the prevalence of social distancing were driven upwards by both national and state-level cases. Unless addressed by effective health communication that reaches individuals across all social strata, variations in perceptions about COVID-19 epidemic raise concerns about the ability of the US to implement and sustain the widespread and restrictive policies that are required to curtail the pandemic.

show abstract

“…A comparison of UAS data with data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) shows that UAS lines up well with the CPS on a number of common variables, and matches the quality of the HRS, a traditional survey considered as the gold standard in social research. [19,20] See Online Appendix 1 for more details on UAS.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The model specifications also included time fixed effects (in days) to capture the influence of aggregate effects, such as public announcements at the federal level or national news, that are shared among UAS respondents on a given day. Our analysis used post-stratification weights, generated through a raking algorithm, to align the sample to the US adult population in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, age, education and geographic location (see https://uasdata.usc.edu/page/Weights and Angrisani et al [19] ). Analysis was performed with StataSE 14.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predictors of Mental Health during the Covid-19 Pandemic in the US: role of economic concerns, health worries and social distancing

Kämpfen¹,

Kohler²,

Ciancio³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Objective: To assess mental health in the US adult population in the Covid-19 pandemic and explore the roles of economic concerns, health worries and social distancing in shaping mental health outcomes. Methods: We analyze online survey data from the "Understanding America Study" (UAS) that is representative of the US adult population and covers the period of March 10-31st 2020 (sample size: 6436). Results: About 29% (CI:27.4-.30.4%) of the US adult population reported some depression/anxiety symptoms over the study period, with symptoms deteriorating over the month of March. Worsening mental health was most strongly associated with concerns about the economic consequences of the pandemic, while concerns about the potential impact of the virus on respondents' own health and the practice of social distancing also predicted the presence of depression and anxiety symptoms, albeit less strongly. Conclusions: Our findings point towards a major mental health crisis unfolding simultaneously with the pandemic in the US. They also highlight the importance of economic countermeasures and social policy for mitigating the impact of Covid-19 on adult mental health in the US over and above an effective public health response.

show abstract

Can Internet Match High-quality Traditional Surveys? Comparing the Health and Retirement Study and its Online Version

Cited by 14 publications

References 11 publications

Predictors of mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic in the US: Role of economic concerns, health worries and social distancing

Predictors of mental health during the Covid-19 pandemic in the US: Role of economic concerns, health worries and social distancing

Know your epidemic, know your response: Early perceptions of COVID-19 and self-reported social distancing in the United States

Predictors of Mental Health during the Covid-19 Pandemic in the US: role of economic concerns, health worries and social distancing

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About