School of Nursing and Health Studies, The Open University of Hong Kong, Ho Man Tin, Hong Kong.
Department of Social Sciences, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Mar 18;16(6):970. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16060970.
A survey study is a research method commonly used to quantify population characteristics in biostatistics and public health research, two fields that often involve sensitive questions. However, if answering sensitive questions could cause social undesirability, respondents may not provide honest responses to questions that are asked directly. To mitigate the response distortion arising from dishonest answers to sensitive questions, the randomized response technique (RRT) is a useful and effective statistical method. However, research has seldom addressed how to apply the RRT in public health research using an online survey with multiple sensitive questions. Thus, we help fill this research gap by employing an innovative unrelated question design method. To illustrate how the RRT can be implemented in a multivariate analysis setting, we conducted a survey study to examine the factors affecting the intention of illegal waste disposal. This study demonstrates an application of the RRT to investigate the factors affecting people's intention of illegal waste disposal. The potential factors of the intention were adopted from the theory of planned behavior and the general deterrence theory, and a self-administered online questionnaire was employed to collect data. Using the RRT, a covariance matrix was extracted for examining the hypothesized model via structural equation modeling. The survey results show that people's attitude toward the behavior and their perceived behavioral control significantly positively affect their intention. This paper is useful for showing researchers and policymakers how to conduct surveys in environmental or public health related research that involves multiple sensitive questions.
调查研究是一种在生物统计学和公共卫生研究中常用的研究方法,用于量化人口特征,这两个领域通常涉及敏感问题。然而,如果回答敏感问题可能会导致社会上的不良影响,那么受访者可能不会对直接提出的问题给出诚实的回答。为了减轻由于对敏感问题的不诚实回答而产生的反应扭曲,随机响应技术(RRT)是一种有用且有效的统计方法。然而,很少有研究涉及如何在涉及多个敏感问题的在线调查中应用 RRT 进行公共卫生研究。因此,我们通过采用创新的无关问题设计方法来帮助填补这一研究空白。为了说明 RRT 如何在多元分析环境中实施,我们进行了一项调查研究,以检验影响非法废物处理意图的因素。本研究展示了 RRT 在调查影响人们非法废物处理意图的因素中的应用。意图的潜在因素取自计划行为理论和一般威慑理论,采用自我管理的在线问卷收集数据。使用 RRT,通过结构方程建模提取协方差矩阵,以检验假设模型。调查结果表明,人们对行为的态度和感知的行为控制对他们的意图有显著的积极影响。本文对于向研究人员和政策制定者展示如何在涉及多个敏感问题的环境或公共卫生相关研究中进行调查具有一定的参考价值。