Tolonen Hanna, Helakorpi Satu, Talala Kirsi, Helasoja Ville, Martelin Tuija, Prättälä Ritva
Department of Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention, National Public Health Institute (KTL), Helsinki, Finland.
Eur J Epidemiol. 2006;21(6):409-15. doi: 10.1007/s10654-006-9019-8. Epub 2006 Jun 28.
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.
在估计健康指标的总体水平变化时，回应率下降，尤其是如果无回应者的特征也在变化，可能会使结果产生偏差。有证据表明，许多国家的调查回应率正在下降。人们还知道，回应者和无回应者在社会经济和人口状况以及健康和健康行为方面存在差异。目前尚无关于回应者和无回应者之间差异随时间变化的信息。我们的目的是调查回应者和无回应者在性别、年龄、婚姻状况和教育水平方面的差异随时间的变化情况。我们使用了芬兰成人健康行为调查（1978 - 2002年）的数据。在过去25年中，所有年龄组的男性和女性的回应率均有所下降。男性的下降速度比女性快，较年轻年龄组的下降速度比年长年龄组快。已婚和未婚者的回应率存在显著差异，但这一差异并未随时间变化。男性和女性在不同教育水平之间的回应率也存在差异，且这一差异多年来有所增加。回应率下降以及与此同时无回应者特征的变化将降低结果的代表性，限制结果与其他调查的可比性，增加趋势估计的偏差，并限制不同人群之间结果的可比性。
