Locker D
Department of Community Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 1993 Apr;21(2):108-13. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0528.1993.tb00731.x.
A major source of bias in health surveys is non-response on the part of those selected to take part in a study. In a survey of the oral health of older adults in Ontario, Canada, we used an initial telephone survey based on random digit dialing with a personal interview and clinical examination follow-up. The telephone survey was completed by 3033 individuals (78.0%) of those sampled. The follow-up was completed by only 907 (30.0%) of these subjects. Nevertheless, there were no major differences in the characteristics of those completing the telephone survey and those subsequently participating in the follow-up. Non-response bias analysis indicated that differences between crude and adjusted estimates of the prevalence of oral conditions were small and the effect of non-response on estimates of the relationship between socioeconomic status and oral health in this population were also small. These results indicate that response rates lower than those conventionally regarded as acceptable do not necessarily compromise the results of epidemiological studies.
健康调查中一个主要的偏差来源是被选中参与研究的人群中的无应答情况。在加拿大安大略省对老年人口腔健康的一项调查中，我们采用了基于随机数字拨号的初始电话调查，并随后进行个人访谈和临床检查。电话调查由抽样的3033人（78.0%）完成。在这些受试者中，只有907人（30.0%）完成了随访。然而，完成电话调查的人群与随后参与随访的人群在特征上没有重大差异。无应答偏差分析表明，口腔疾病患病率的粗略估计值与调整后估计值之间的差异很小，无应答对该人群社会经济地位与口腔健康关系估计值的影响也很小。这些结果表明，低于传统上认为可接受的应答率不一定会影响流行病学研究的结果。
