MODULE 1: Non-Health Influences on Generic Health Ratings: Comparing the Susceptibility of Self-Rated Health (SRH) and the Minimum European Health Module (MEHM) to Biases Due to Optimism, Hypochondriasis, and Social Desirability (Patrick Lazarevič, Martina Brandt, Marc Luy, Caroline Berghammer) \r\nSelf-rated health (SRH) is the most widely used single-indicator of health in many scientific disciplines (Jylhä 2009). Even though more comprehensive approaches to measure generic health exist, they are often too time consuming for survey interviews, especially in multi-thematic surveys, due to time limitations. Research in this regard has shown that, even when controlling for comprehensive health information, SRH is noticeably and independently influenced by non-health factors like satisfaction with life or social participation (e.g., Lazarevič 2018). While these results illustrate that health ratings are influenced by non-health factors, the personality traits that are assumed to bias SRH (e.g., optimism, social desirability, or hypochondriasis) are typically not directly measured. The Minimum European Health Module (MEHM), as proposed by Robine & Jagger (2003), complements SRH with the questions whether the respondent suffers from a chronic disease and whether and to what extent they are limited in their usual activities due to a health problem. Thus, MEHM can be seen as a compromise between using SRH as a single-indicator and a comprehensive scale while covering the two most relevant factors for health ratings, i.e., chronic diseases and the functional status (Lazarevič 2018). While MEHM is obviously less time- and cost-intensive than more comprehensive approaches to measure health and there was some research done on its components separately (e.g., Berger et al. 2015), hardly anything is known about its usefulness as a short-scale of generic health, its overall psychometric properties, and its susceptibility to non-health factors potentially biasing the health measurement. This module tested the feasibility and utility of using the Minimum European Health Module (MEHM) as a short scale for measuring generic health. We demonstrate the feasibility of extracting a factor score from MEHM utilizing confirmatory factor analyses based on polychoric correlations. Further analyses suggest that this factor score might be useful in reducing bias in generic health measurement due to optimism and social desirability.
MODULE 2: Online completion versus face-to-face completion. Testing mixing modes of data collection for Austrian social surveys (Markus Hadler, Franz Höllinger, Anja Eder) \r\nCollecting data online is a promising tool, given the problems survey research faces in terms of lowering response rates and increasing costs. Yet, the results on the comparability of online and face-to-face surveys are ambiguous (see Roberts et al. 2016). Therefore, the aim of our research is to test differences in responses when completing surveys online compared to collecting the same data face-to-face. Our PUMA-module collects some of the core ISSP questions online, which were asked face-to-face (CAPI) in the same time-period. The topics of the ISSP questionnaires 2017 and 2018 are “Social Networks” and “Religion.” At face value, we expect that these two areas may attract different respondents when conducted online as compared to face-to-face. Online networking should be more prevalent and traditional religious activities less common among the online respondents. If there are no significant differences between these two samples, our study will be a strong indicator that online tools are valid instruments. Therefore, the mixed modes design aims to break new ground in understanding the advantages and limitations, the costs and benefits of combining online and face-to-face interviews in Austria on the basis of two prominent survey modules from the International Social Survey Programme.
MODULE 3: Concerns of Smartphone Owners When Using their Device for Research (Florian Keusch, Martin Weichbold) \r\nSmartphone use is on the rise worldwide (Pew Research Center 2017). Survey researchers are aware that smartphone users increasingly complete online surveys on their mobile devices and have investigated the quality of survey data provided via...","sameAs":"https://doi.org/10.11587/NHWVOO","keywords":["Well-being (health)","Optimism","Social conformity","Methodology","Social research","Data collection methodology","Mode of data collection","Information and communications technology","Data transmission","Right to privacy"],"variableMeasured":"Individual","measurementTechnique":"Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based","identifier":"doi:10.11587/NHWVOO","creator":[{"@type":"Person","name":"PUMA","affiliation":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Plattform für Umfragen, Methoden und empirische Analysen"}}],"temporalCoverage":"2018-05-25/2018-06-28","spatialCoverage":"Austria","datePublished":"2019-04-12","dateModified":"2023-03-09"}