Forgetting to remember or remembering to forget: A study of the recall period length in health care survey questions.
Kjellsson, Gustav LU ; Clarke, Philip LU and Gerdtham, Ulf LU
(2014)
In Journal of Health Economics
35(Feb 7).
p.34-46
- Abstract
- Self-reported data on health care use is a key input in a range of studies. However, the length of recall period in self-reported health care questions varies between surveys, and this variation may affect the results of the studies. This study uses a large survey experiment to examine the role of the length of recall periods for the quality of self-reported hospitalization data by comparing registered with self-reported hospitalizations of respondents exposed to recall periods of one, three, six, or twelve months. Our findings have conflicting implications for survey design, as the preferred length of recall period depends on the objective of the analysis. For an aggregated measure of hospitalization, longer recall periods are preferred.... (More)
- Self-reported data on health care use is a key input in a range of studies. However, the length of recall period in self-reported health care questions varies between surveys, and this variation may affect the results of the studies. This study uses a large survey experiment to examine the role of the length of recall periods for the quality of self-reported hospitalization data by comparing registered with self-reported hospitalizations of respondents exposed to recall periods of one, three, six, or twelve months. Our findings have conflicting implications for survey design, as the preferred length of recall period depends on the objective of the analysis. For an aggregated measure of hospitalization, longer recall periods are preferred. For analysis oriented more to the micro-level, shorter recall periods may be considered since the association between individual characteristics (e.g., education) and recall error increases with the length of the recall period. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4383877
- author
- Kjellsson, Gustav
LU
; Clarke, Philip
LU
and Gerdtham, Ulf
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2014
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Journal of Health Economics
- volume
- 35
- issue
- Feb 7
- pages
- 34 - 46
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:24595066
- wos:000337870200004
- scopus:84894720672
- pmid:24595066
- ISSN
- 1879-1646
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2014.01.007
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 59a08fa0-43cd-4575-a111-e86eccd49078 (old id 4383877)
- alternative location
- http://project.nek.lu.se/publications/workpap/papers/WP13_1.pdf
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 10:32:53
- date last changed
- 2022-04-20 03:07:39
@article{59a08fa0-43cd-4575-a111-e86eccd49078,
abstract = {{Self-reported data on health care use is a key input in a range of studies. However, the length of recall period in self-reported health care questions varies between surveys, and this variation may affect the results of the studies. This study uses a large survey experiment to examine the role of the length of recall periods for the quality of self-reported hospitalization data by comparing registered with self-reported hospitalizations of respondents exposed to recall periods of one, three, six, or twelve months. Our findings have conflicting implications for survey design, as the preferred length of recall period depends on the objective of the analysis. For an aggregated measure of hospitalization, longer recall periods are preferred. For analysis oriented more to the micro-level, shorter recall periods may be considered since the association between individual characteristics (e.g., education) and recall error increases with the length of the recall period.}},
author = {{Kjellsson, Gustav and Clarke, Philip and Gerdtham, Ulf}},
issn = {{1879-1646}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{Feb 7}},
pages = {{34--46}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Journal of Health Economics}},
title = {{Forgetting to remember or remembering to forget: A study of the recall period length in health care survey questions.}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2014.01.007}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.jhealeco.2014.01.007}},
volume = {{35}},
year = {{2014}},
}