Institute of Nursing Science and Practice, Paracelsus Medical University, A-5020 Salzburg, Austria.
Department of Sociology, Paris Lodron University Salzburg, A-5020 Salzburg, Austria.
Age Ageing. 2022 Feb 2;51(2). doi: 10.1093/ageing/afac008.
Face-to-face surveys are applied frequently when conducting research in older populations. Interviewers play a decisive role in data quality, may affect measurement and influence results. This study uses survey data about pain in nursing home residents and analyses, whether affiliation-of-interviewer (internal vs. external to nursing home) and gender-of-interviewer affect residents' responses in terms of interviewer variance and systematically varying pain reports.
Overall, 258 nursing home residents with up to moderate cognitive impairment were examined by 61 interviewers about pain intensity and interference applying the Brief Pain Inventory. Interviewer variance was measured using intra-interviewer correlation coefficients (ρ). Two-factorial covariance analysis was applied to analyse whether pain intensity and interference scores differ by interviewer characteristics.
Interviewer heterogeneity accounts for almost one quarter of total variance on average. Interviewer variance is higher for internal and male interviewers than for external and female interviewers. Covariance analyses show significant effects of interviewer characteristics on pain reports. Average pain intensity and interference scores vary considerably by interviewer gender and affiliation. Highest pain intensity was reported towards female internal and male external interviewers; highest pain interference was reported towards male external interviewers.
Residents' answers substantially differ in relation to who is assessing pain. There is a risk of imprecise and biased survey estimates on sensitive topics like pain in nursing homes. Interviewer gender and affiliation seem to evoke gender-specific and status-related expectations and attributions which influence residents' response process. Interviewer effects pose a considerable threat to survey data quality in institutionalised older populations.
在对老年人群进行研究时，经常会应用面对面调查。访谈员在数据质量方面起着决定性的作用，可能会影响测量结果并影响结果。本研究使用了关于养老院居民疼痛的调查数据，并分析了访谈员的隶属关系（养老院内部与外部）和性别是否会影响居民在访谈员方差和系统变化的疼痛报告方面的反应。
共有 258 名认知能力受损程度不同的养老院居民，由 61 名访谈员使用简短疼痛量表（Brief Pain Inventory）就疼痛强度和干扰情况进行了检查。使用内-访谈员相关系数（ρ）来衡量访谈员方差。采用两因素协方差分析来分析访谈员特征是否会影响疼痛强度和干扰评分。
访谈员的异质性平均占总方差的近四分之一。内部和男性访谈员的访谈员方差高于外部和女性访谈员。协方差分析显示，访谈员特征对疼痛报告有显著影响。平均疼痛强度和干扰评分因访谈员性别和隶属关系而异。女性内部和男性外部访谈员报告的疼痛强度最高；男性外部访谈员报告的疼痛干扰最高。
受访者的回答与评估疼痛的人密切相关。在养老院等敏感话题上，调查估计可能存在不精确和有偏见的风险。访谈员的性别和隶属关系似乎会引起与性别和地位相关的期望和归因，从而影响居民的反应过程。访谈员的影响对机构化老年人群体的调查数据质量构成了相当大的威胁。
