Addressing acquiescence: Reducing survey error to promote Latino health

描述（由申请人提供）：许多进步提高了我们收集有关健康行为和结果的有效和可靠数据的能力。然而，健康行为往往受到社会心理变量的影响，如态度和信仰，这些变量是不可观察的，因此更难以衡量。态度和信念通常使用李克特量表项目来衡量，其中受访者沿着连续体沿着对陈述的同意程度进行评分。自20世纪20年代以来，研究人员观察到，一些受访者倾向于系统地同意李克特量表的问卷项目，无论问题的内容如何。这种回答调查问题的模式被称为默许回答风格（ARS）。ARS危害到减少健康差距的努力。ARS可以削弱健康专家对影响健康行为的因素的理解，他们制定有效干预措施的能力，以及他们评估减少健康差异计划的准确性。研究表明，ARS的使用可能受到文化的影响，在美国，在调查拉丁裔人口时可能特别令人担忧。调查人员和其他人的研究表明，22- 24%的拉丁裔受访者默许健康调查，而非拉丁裔白人的这一比例为13%。这些文化模式的差异，在ARS可能会引入错误的健康调查数据，这反过来，可能会人为地创建或加强拉丁美洲人的人口和拉丁美洲人和非拉丁美洲白人之间的区别，从而错误地通知健康差距的研究。拉丁裔人口在人口和文化上是多样化的，几乎没有人知道是什么因素可能导致来自不同种族或文化群体的拉丁裔人使用ARS。此外，尽管越来越需要从拉丁美洲人那里获得有效的健康数据，他们占美国人口的16%，预计到2050年将增加到29%，但目前还不清楚如何解决ARS。拟议的研究将：（1）确定ARS的预测因子;（2）在数据收集期间筛选最有希望减少ARS的方法，并在数据收集完成后调整ARS。这项研究的重点是墨西哥裔美国人，波多黎各人和古巴裔美国人，因为这些群体包括三个最大的拉丁美洲子群体。本研究的数据将来自两项调查。第一项调查将收集2900名墨西哥裔美国人、波多黎各人、古巴裔美国人和非拉丁裔白人的数据，以确定与ARS相关的因素。第二项调查将比较1161名墨西哥裔美国人，波多黎各人和古巴裔美国人健康调查受访者中解决ARS的不同方法。这项研究的结果将为研究人员提供经验驱动的指导，指导他们在调查拉丁裔受访者时何时预测以及如何减少与ARS相关的测量误差。这些知识将提高健康数据的有效性，通过提高对ARS的认识和标准化的方法来解决ARS，从而有助于更准确地了解拉丁美洲健康的心理社会决定因素，更有效的健康促进计划针对拉丁美洲人，更好的长期拉丁美洲人的健康结果。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Numerous advances have improved our ability to collect valid and reliable data on health behaviors and outcomes. However, health behaviors are often influenced by psychosocial variables - such as attitudes and beliefs - that are unobservable and, thus, more difficult to measure. Attitudes and beliefs are typically measured using Likert-scaled items, in which respondents rate their agreement with statements along a continuum. Since the 1920s, researchers have observed that some respondents tend to systematically agree to Likert-scaled questionnaire items, regardless of question content. This pattern of responding to survey questions is known as acquiescent response style (ARS). ARS jeopardizes efforts to reduce health disparities. ARS can weaken health experts' understanding of what factors influence health behaviors, their ability to create effective interventions, and th accuracy with which they evaluate programs to reduce health disparities. Research indicates that ARS use may be influenced by culture, and, in the U.S., may be of particular concern when surveying Latino populations. Research by the investigators and others suggests that 22-24 percent of Latino survey respondents acquiesce on health surveys, as compared to 13 percent of non-Latino Whites. These culturally patterned differences in ARS may introduce error in health survey data, which, in turn, may artificially create or enhance distinctions both within Latino populations and between Latinos and non-Latino Whites, thereby erroneously informing health disparities research. The Latino population is demographically and culturally diverse, and almost nothing is known about what factors may drive ARS use among Latinos from different ethnic or cultural groups. Further, despite a growing need to obtain valid health data from Latinos, who comprise 16 percent of the U.S. population and are expected to increase to 29 percent by 2050, it is unclear how to address ARS. The proposed study will: (1) identify predictors of ARS; and (2) screen for the most promising methods of reducing ARS during data collection and adjusting for ARS after data collection is complete. This research focuses on Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cuban Americans, as these groups comprise the three largest Latino sub-groups. Data from this study will be derived from two surveys. The first survey will gather data from 2900 Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and non-Latino Whites in order to identify factors associated with ARS. The second survey will compare different methods of addressing ARS among 1161 Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban American health survey respondents. Findings from this research will provide researchers with empirically driven guidance on when to anticipate and how to reduce ARS-associated measurement error when surveying Latino respondents. Such knowledge will improve health data validity through increased ARS awareness and standardization of methods to address ARS, thereby contributing to more accurate understanding of the psychosocial determinants of Latino health, more effective health promotion programs targeting Latinos, and better long-term Latino health outcomes.