How unclear terms affect survey data.
How unclear terms affect survey data.
复制标题
不明确的术语如何影响调查数据。
DOI：
10.1086/269312
复制
发表时间：
1992
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
FowlerJr,FJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
FowlerJr,FJ
尽管编写清晰的问题被视为调查的总体目标，但确保每个关键术语得到一致理解的程序并不是常规的。没有充分测试受访者对问题理解程度的研究人员必须假设模糊性不会对其结果产生大的或系统的影响。从国家健康调查中使用的问题中抽取的七个问题经过了特殊的预测试程序，发现其中包含一个或多个定义不明确的术语。当对问题进行修改以澄清关键术语的定义时，得出了显着不同的估计。这意味着不明确的术语可能会产生有偏差的估计。结果表明，评估调查问题以识别不一致理解的关键术语并定义不清楚的术语是减少调查测量中系统误差的方法。
Although writing clear questions is accepted as a general goal in surveys, procedures to ensure that each key term is consistently understood are not routine. Researchers who do not adequately test respondent understanding of questions must assume that ambiguity will not have a large or systematic effect on their results. Seven questions that were drawn from questions used in national health surveys were subjected to special pretest procedures and found to contain one or more poorly defined terms. When the questions were revised to clarify the definition of key terms, significantly different estimates resulted. The implication is that unclear terms are likely to produce biased estimates. The results indicate that evaluation of survey questions to identify key terms that are not consistently understood and defining unclear terms are ways to reduce systematic error in survey measurement.