Asking sensitive questions: Possibilities and limits of randomized response and other techniques in different survey modes

In our project within the DFG Priority Programme on Survey Methodology (SPP 1292) we conducted various methodological studies on survey techniques for asking sensitive questions. For example, we compared results from the randomized response technique (RRT) to true known data in a validation study, developed and evaluated implementations of the RRT for CATI and online mode, and compared the performance of the RRT to competing approaches. In our talk, we will give an overview of the studies conducted in this project and will present our key findings. Furthermore, we will identify open research questions and give guidelines for future research on asking sensitive questions.

Application of real-time fluorescent PCR for quantitative assessment of Neospora caninum infections in organotypic slice cultures of rat central nervous system tissue

The previously described Nc5-specific PCR test for the diagnosis of Neospora caninum infections was used to develop a quantitative PCR assay which allows the determination of infection intensities within different experimental and diagnostic sample groups. The quantitative PCR was performed by using a dual fluorescent hybridization probe system and the LightCycler Instrument for online detection of amplified DNA. This assay was successfully applied for demonstrating the parasite proliferation kinetics in organotypic slice cultures of rat brain which were infected in vitro with N. caninum tachyzoites. This PCR-based method of parasite quantitation with organotypic brain tissue samples can be regarded as a novel ex vivo approach for exploring different aspects of cerebral N. caninum infection.

Endstation Notfallstation: Perzeption und Rezeption des Begriffs «palliativer Patient» sowie Ansätze zur Verbesserung der interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit – ein Survey unter notfallmedizinischem Personal auf einer Schweizer Notfallstation

Hintergrund: Wegen sich verändernder Strukturen im Spitalbereich sowie im Bereich der Hausarztabdeckung als auch infolge zunehmenden Drucks auf das Gesundheitssystem kommen mehr Patienten auf die Notfallstationen, die aufgrund ihrer Grunderkrankung und des fortgeschrittenen Krankheitsstadiums von einem palliativen Behandlungskonzept profitieren. Eine wesentliche Herausforderung ist hierbei bereits die Definition von «Palliative Care» (PC), sowie die Klärung, was genau die palliative Versorgung beinhaltet. Häufig vermischt wird der Terminus «Palliative Care» mit «End of life care». Die vorliegende Studie ist eine Standortbestimmung im Universitären Notfallzentrum des Inselspitals Bern (UNZ), das jährlich rund 32 400 Patienten versorgt. Ziel ist es, mehr über den Wissensstand und die persönliche Einstellung der Mitarbeiter zu palliativen Fragestellungen und speziell zum Begriff «Palliative Care» zu erhalten. Methodik: Die Mitarbeiter des Universitären Notfallzentrums des Inselspitals Bern (UNZ) wurden mittels einer Online-Umfrage durch eine spitalexterne Fachinstitution interviewt. Diese Befragung basiert auf einem Instrument [1], das in einer vergleichbaren Studie auf einer Notfallstation in den USA entwickelt und validiert wurde. Resultate: Von 154 Mitarbeitenden (Pflege und Ärzte) füllten 60 Mitarbeitende die Befragung vollständig aus, entsprechend einer Antwortrate von 39%. Die Definition von Palliative Care (von n=60) war sehr heterogen und konnte in sechs Themenbereiche eingeteilt werden. Bei den Fragen nach spezifischen Leistungsangeboten äusserten die Mitarbeitenden den Wunsch nach einem erleichterten Zugang zu bestehenden Patientendaten, nach einem 24-Stunden-Palliative-Care-Konsiliardienst und nach mehr Besprechungszeit für Fragestellungen der PC im klinischen Alltag. Schlussfolgerungen: Die heterogene Begriffsdefinition von «Palliative Care» bestätigt sich. Es besteht kein klares Vorgehen, und zudem lässt sich ein Zeitmangel für ausführliche Patientengespräche in palliativen Situationen im UNZ feststellen. Der Patientenwunsch oder Patientenverfügungen mit DNR/DNI-Prozedere stehen nicht im Widerspruch zu den persönlichen Wertvorstellungen der meisten Mitarbeitenden. Die 24-Stunden-Verfügbarkeit eines spezialisierten PC-Teams, das Erarbeiten von Guidelines und vermehrtes Training für PC würde von den UNZ-Mitarbeitenden begrüsst.

A Quantitative Analysis of Developer Information Needs in Software Ecosystems

We present the results of an investigation into the nature of information needs of software developers who work in projects that are part of larger ecosystems. This work is based on a quantitative survey of 75 professional software developers. We corroborate the results identified in the sur- vey with needs and motivations proposed in a previous sur- vey and discover that tool support for developers working in an ecosystem context is even more meager than we thought: mailing lists and internet search are the most popular tools developers use to satisfy their ecosystem-related information needs.

People, protected areas and ecosystem services: a qualitative and quantitative analysis of local people's perception and preferences in Côte d'Ivoire

The long-term integrity of protected areas (PAs), and hence the maintenance of related ecosystem services (ES), are dependent on the support of local people. In the present study, local people's perceptions of ecosystem services from PAs and factors that govern local preferences for PAs are assessed. Fourteen study villages were randomly selected from three different protected forest areas and one control site along the southern coast of Côte d'Ivoire. Data was collected through a mixed-method approach, including qualitative semi-structured interviews and a household survey based on hypothetical choice scenarios. Local people's perceptions of ecosystem service provision was decrypted through qualitative content analysis, while the relation between people's preferences and potential factors that affect preferences were analyzed through multinomial models. This study shows that rural villagers do perceive a number of different ecosystem services as benefits from PAs in Côte d'Ivoire. The results based on quantitative data also suggest that local preferences for PAs and related ecosystem services are driven by PAs' management rules, age, and people's dependence on natural resources.

Development of a diagnostic online tool system for Swiss sport psychology practitioners

Psychological assessment is a central component of applied sport psychology. Despite obvious and well-documented advantages of diagnostic online tools, there is a lack of a system for such tools for sport psychologists so far in Switzerland. Having the most frequently used questionnaires available online in one single tool for all listed Swiss sport psychologists would make the work of practitioners a lot easier and less time consuming. Therefore, the main goal of this project is to develop a diagnostic online tool system with the possibility to make available different questionnaires often used in sport psychology. Furthermore, we intend to survey status and use of this diagnostic online tool system and the questionnaires by Swiss sport psychologists. A specific challenge is to limit the access to qualified sport psychologists and to secure the confidentiality for the client. In particular, approved sport psychologists get an individual code for each of their athletes for the required questionnaire. With the help of this code, athletes can access the test via a secure website at any place of the world. As soon as they complete and submit the online questionnaire, analysed and interpreted data reach the sport psychologist via E-Mail, which is timesaving and easy applicable for the sport psychologist. Furthermore, data are available for interpretation with athletes and documentation of individual development over time is possible. Later on, completed and anonymised questionnaires will be collected and analysed. Bigger number of collected data give more insight in the psychometric properties, thus helping to improve and further develop the questionnaires. In this presentation, we demonstrate the tool and its feasibility using the German version of the Test of Performance Strategies (TOPS, Schmid et al., 2010). To conclude, this diagnostic online tool system offers new possibilities for sport psychologists working as practitioner.

Changes in chlamydia control activities in Europe between 2007 and 2012: a cross-national survey.

BACKGROUND In 2012, the levels of chlamydia control activities including primary prevention, effective case management with partner management and surveillance were assessed in 2012 across countries in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), on initiative of the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) survey, and the findings were compared with those from a similar survey in 2007. METHODS Experts in the 30 EU/EEA countries were invited to respond to an online questionnaire; 28 countries responded, of which 25 participated in both the 2007 and 2012 surveys. Analyses focused on 13 indicators of chlamydia prevention and control activities; countries were assigned to one of five categories of chlamydia control. RESULTS In 2012, more countries than in 2007 reported availability of national chlamydia case management guidelines (80% vs. 68%), opportunistic chlamydia testing (68% vs. 44%) and consistent use of nucleic acid amplification tests (64% vs. 36%). The number of countries reporting having a national sexually transmitted infection control strategy or a surveillance system for chlamydia did not change notably. In 2012, most countries (18/25, 72%) had implemented primary prevention activities and case management guidelines addressing partner management, compared with 44% (11/25) of countries in 2007. CONCLUSION Overall, chlamydia control activities in EU/EEA countries strengthened between 2007 and 2012. Several countries still need to develop essential chlamydia control activities, whereas others may strengthen implementation and monitoring of existing activities.

Trends in health information seeking among cancer and non-cancer adults between 2003 and 2005: A descriptive analysis of Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) data

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. With the advent of new technologies, changes in health care delivery, and multiplicity of provider types that patients must see, cancer care management has become increasingly complex. The availability of cancer health information has been shown to help cancer patients cope with the management and effects of their cancers. As a result, more cancer patients are using the internet to find resources that can aid in decision-making and recovery. ^ The Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) is a nationally representative survey designed to collect information about the experiences of cancer and non-cancer adults with health information sources. The HINTS survey focused on both conventional sources as well as newer technologies, particularly the internet. This study is a descriptive analysis of the HINTS 2003 and HINTS 2005 survey data. The purpose of the research is to explore the general trends in health information seeking and use by US adults, and especially by cancer patients. ^ From 2003 to 2005, internet use for various health-related activities appears to have increased among adults with and without cancer. Differences were found between the groups in the general trust in information media, particularly the internet. Non-cancer respondents tended to have greater trust in information media than cancer respondents. ^ The latter portion of this work examined characteristics of HINTS respondents that were thought to be relevant to how much trust individuals placed in the internet as a source of health information. Trust in health information from the internet was significantly greater among younger adults, higher-earning households, internet users, online seekers of health or cancer information, and those who found online cancer information useful. ^

A qualitative and quantitative assessment of cancer patients' perceptions of barriers to treatment

This study examined barriers that cancer patients experience in obtaining treatment. The principal aim of the study was to conduct a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative assessment of barriers to cancer treatment for Texas cancer patients. The three specific aims of the study were to: (1) conduct a review and critique of published and unpublished research on barriers to cancer treatment; (2) conduct focus groups for the qualitative assessment of cancer patients' perceived barriers to cancer treatment; and (3) survey a representative sample of cancer patients regarding perceived barriers to treatment. The study was guided by the Aday and Andersen access framework of predisposing, enabling, and need determinants of care-seeking.^ To address the first specific aim, a total of 732 abstracts were examined, from which 154 articles were selected for review. Of these 154 articles, 57 that related directly to research on barriers to cancer treatment were chosen for subsequent analysis. Criteria were applied to each article to evaluate the strength of the study design, sampling and measurement procedures. The major barriers that were consistently documented to influence whether or not cancer patients sought or continued required treatment included problems with communication between the patient and provider, lack of information on side effects, the cost of treatment and associated difficulties in obtaining and maintaining insurance coverage, and the absence of formal and informal networks of social support. Access barriers were generally greater for older, minority women, and patients of lower socioeconomic status.^ To address the second specific aim, a total of eight focus groups (n = 44) were conducted across the State of Texas with cancer patients identified by the Texas Community Oncology Network, American Cancer Society, and community health centers. One important finding was that cost is the greatest hurdle that patients face. Another finding was that with the health care/insurance crisis, an increasing number of physicians are working with their patients to develop individually-tailored payment plans. For people in rural areas, travel to treatment sites is a major barrier due to the travel costs as well as work time forfeited by patients and their family members. A third major finding was the patients' family and church play important roles in providing social and emotional support for cancer patients.^ To address the third aim, a total of 910 cancer patients were surveyed during October and November, 1993. Approximately 65% of the cancer patients responded to the survey. The findings showed that the major barriers to treatment included costs of medications and diagnostic tests, transportation, lack of social support, problems understanding the written information regarding their disease as well as losing coverage or having higher premiums or copayments once they were diagnosed (particularly among blacks).^ Significant differences in reported barriers were found between racial groups. The minority respondents (i.e., blacks and Hispanics) tended to experience more barriers to treatment compared to the white respondents. More specifically, Hispanics were more likely to report transportation as a barrier to treatment than both white and blacks. Future research is needed to better understand the problems that minority cancer patients experience in receiving treatment. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) ^

Predictive validity of the personal background and preparation survey and effectiveness of targeted interventions among health science community college students

Existing data, collected from 1st-year students enrolled in a major Health Science Community College in the south central United States, for Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 semesters as part of the "Online Navigational Assessment Vehicle, Intervention Guidance, and Targeting of Risks (NAVIGATOR) for Undergraduate Minority Student Success" with CPHS approval number HSC-GEN-07-0158, was used for this thesis. The Personal Background and Preparation Survey (PBPS) and a two-question risk self-assessment subscale were administered to students during their 1st-year orientation. The PBPS total risk score, risk self-assessment total and overall scores, and Under Representative Minority Student (URMS) status were recorded. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and report the predictive validity of the indicators identified above for Adverse Academic Status Events (AASE) and Nonadvancement Adverse Academic Status Events (NAASE) as well as the effectiveness of interventions targeted using the PBPS among a diverse population of health science community college students. The predictive validity of the PBPS for AASE has previously been demonstrated among health science professions and graduate students (Johnson, Johnson, Kim, & McKee, 2009a; Johnson, Johnson, McKee, & Kim, 2009b). Data will be analyzed using binary logistic regression and correlation using SPSS 19 statistical package. Independent variables will include baseline- versus intervention-year treatments, PBPS, risk self-assessment, and URMS status. The dependent variables will be binary AASE and NAASE status. ^ The PBPS was the first reliable diagnostic and prescriptive instrument to establish documented predictive validity for student Adverse Academic Status Events (AASE) among students attending health science professional schools. These results extend the documented validity for the PBPS in predicting AASE to a health science community college student population. Results further demonstrated that interventions introduced using the PBPS were followed by approximately one-third reduction in the odds of Nonadvancement Adverse Academic Status Events (NAASE), controlling for URMS status and risk self-assessment scores. These results indicate interventions introduced using the PBPS may have potential to reduce AASE or attrition among URMS and nonURMS attending health science community colleges on a broader scale; positively impacting costs, shortages, and diversity of health science professionals.^

Land cover layer, digitized from the PEF Survey of Western Palestine (1880)

Geographic information systems allow the extraction and quantitative analysis of information from historical maps. The aims of this research were to examine the completeness of information represented on the 1881 Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) map, to quantitatively reconstruct the landscape of nineteenth century Palestine and to explore whether spatial patterns in land cover/land use can be partially explained statistically by physical and human factors. Using historical aerial photos, we concluded that most of the major past landscape features were indeed shown on the PEF map, with an average overall correspondence of 53%. Forests and Mediterranean maquis were more abundant at distances greater than 2 km from towns and villages. Specific land cover/land-use types were associated with certain soil types, topographic regions and rainfall thresholds. In conclusion, the 1881 PEF map can serve as a reliable reference for understanding the land cover/land-use patterns of nineteenth century Palestine.

Survey of Western Palestine 1880, Palestine Exploration Fund 1:63,360 mosaicked map

The Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF) Survey of Western Palestine (1871-1877) is highly praised for its accuracy and completeness; the first systematic analysis of its planimetric accuracy was published by Levin (2006). To study the potential of these 1:63,360 maps for a quantitative analysis of land cover changes over a period of time, Levin has compared them to 20th century topographic maps. The map registration error of the PEF maps was 74.4 m using 123 control points of trigonometrical stations and a 1st order polynomial. The median RMSE of all control and test points (n = 1104) was 153.6 m. Following the georeferencing of each of the 26 sheets of the PEF maps of the Survey of Western Palestine, a mosaicked file has been created. Care should be taken when analysing historical maps, as it cannot be assumed that their accuracy is consistent at different parts or for different features depicted on them.

MTurk Survey on "Mood and Personality". Documentation

Social desirability and the fear of negative consequences often deter a considerable share of survey respondents from responding truthfully to sensitive questions. Thus, resulting prevalence estimates are biased. Indirect techniques for surveying sensitive questions such as the Randomized Response Technique are intended to mitigate misreporting by providing complete concealment of individual answers. However, it is far from clear whether these indirect techniques actually produce more valid measurements than standard direct questioning. In order to evaluate the validity of different sensitive question techniques we carried out an online validation experiment at Amazon Mechanical Turk in which respondents' self-reports of norm-breaking behavior (cheating in dice games) were validated against observed behavior. This document describes the design of the validation experiment and provides details on the questionnaire, the different sensitive question technique implementations, the field work, and the resulting dataset. The appendix contains a codebook of the data and facsimiles of the questionnaire pages and other survey materials.

Sensitive Questions in Online Surveys: Experimental Results for the Randomized Response Technique (RRT) and the Unmatched Count Technique (UCT)

Gaining valid answers to so-called sensitive questions is an age-old problem in survey research. Various techniques have been developed to guarantee anonymity and minimize the respondent's feelings of jeopardy. Two such techniques are the randomized response technique (RRT) and the unmatched count technique (UCT). In this study we evaluate the effectiveness of different implementations of the RRT (using a forced-response design) in a computer-assisted setting and also compare the use of the RRT to that of the UCT. The techniques are evaluated according to various quality criteria, such as the prevalence estimates they provide, the ease of their use, and respondent trust in the techniques. Our results indicate that the RRTs are problematic with respect to several domains, such as the limited trust they inspire and non-response, and that the RRT estimates are unreliable due to a strong false "no" bias, especially for the more sensitive questions. The UCT, however, performed well compared to the RRTs on all the evaluated measures. The UCT estimates also had more face validity than the RRT estimates. We conclude that the UCT is a promising alternative to RRT in self-administered surveys and that future research should be directed towards evaluating and improving the technique.

The Central Bank and bank credits in the Philippines : a survey on effectiveness of monetary policy and its measures

In the post-Asian crisis period, bank loans to the manufacturing sector have shown a slow recovery in the affected countries, unexceptionally in the Philippines. This paper provides a literacy survey on the effectiveness of the Central Bank’s monetary policy and the responsiveness of the financial market, and discusses on the future works necessary to better understand the monetary policy effectiveness in the Philippines. As the survey shows, most previous works focus on the correlation between the short-term policy rates and during the period of monetary tightening and relatively less interest in quantitative effectiveness. Future tasks would shed lights on (1) the asset side – other than loan outstanding – of banks to analyze their behavior/preference in structuring portfolios, and (2) the quantitative impacts during the monetary easing period.