Measures of functional limitations: The effects of person-level vs. household-level questionnaire design

Abstract

This paper presents results on functional limitations and the use of special aids from the Census Bureau's 1999 Questionnaire Design Experimental Research Survey (QDERS), which included a split-ballot test comparing person-level questions to household-level questions. We find some evidence that the use of a household-level design results in lower survey estimates than the person-level design. The household-level approach, however, produces somewhat more reliable data than the person-level approach and results in a shorter interview than the person-level design. Interviewers administer survey questions equally well in both treatments, and respondents have little difficulty understanding and answering survey questions in either treatment. Item non-response is trivial in both treatments.

Citation

Hess, J., Rothgeb, J., Moore, J., Pascale, J. and Keeley, C. (2001), "Measures of functional limitations: The effects of person-level vs. household-level questionnaire design", Barnartt, S.N. and Altman, B.M. (Ed.) Exploring Theories and Expanding Methodologies: Where we are and where we need to go (Research in Social Science and Disability, Vol. 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 145-166. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3547(01)80024-5