Montori Victor M, Leung Teresa W, Walter Stephen D, Guyatt Gordon H
Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA.
J Clin Epidemiol. 2005 Aug;58(8):856-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2004.11.027.
Response bias may affect the result of surveys with <100% response rate. We applied methods commonly used in meta-analysis to ascertain the extent to which response bias affects multiwave survey results.
To test hypotheses of between-wave similarity, we used the Cochran-Armitage test for trends and the Q-test of heterogeneity across waves in a survey of 2,127 North American clinicians using six e-mail waves and one fax wave and achieving a response rate of 22%. We used the I2 statistic To quantify the extent of inconsistency in survey outcomes across waves not due to within-wave random error (i.e., inconsistency due to response bias).
With this survey, tests of heterogeneity and trend were not significant and I2 equaled 0%. These results suggest that the underlying responses did not differ across waves and thus strengthened the inference that response bias was not affecting the interpretation of the survey.
Researchers can use procedures that assess inconsistency in meta-analyses to evaluate the validity of a multiwave survey with a less than optimal response rate.
应答偏倚可能会影响应答率低于100%的调查结果。我们应用荟萃分析中常用的方法来确定应答偏倚对多波调查结果的影响程度。
为检验各波之间相似性的假设，我们在一项对2127名北美临床医生的调查中，使用 Cochr an - Armitage趋势检验和各波之间的异质性Q检验。该调查采用了六次电子邮件推送和一次传真推送，应答率为22%。我们使用I²统计量来量化各波调查结果中并非由于波内随机误差导致的不一致程度（即由于应答偏倚导致的不一致）。
在本次调查中，异质性检验和趋势检验均无显著性，I²等于0%。这些结果表明各波的潜在应答并无差异，从而强化了应答偏倚未影响调查结果解释这一推断。
研究人员可以使用荟萃分析中评估不一致性的程序，来评估应答率欠佳的多波调查的有效性。
