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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: AJPH.2008.152835v1 99/10/1806    most recent Submit a response View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Blumberg, S. J. Articles by Luke, J. V. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Blumberg, S. J. Articles by Luke, J. V. Related Collections Epidemiology Surveys Other Statistics/Evaluation/Research

Stephen J. Blumberg, PhD and Julian V. Luke, BA

Stephen J. Blumberg and Julian V. Luke are with the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hyattsville, MD.

Correspondence: Correspondence should be sent to Stephen J. Blumberg, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 3311 Toledo Rd, Room 2112, Hyattsville, MD 20782 (e-mail: sblumberg{at}cdc.gov). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.org by clicking the "Reprints/Eprints" link.

Objectives. We used recent data to reexamine whether the exclusion of adults from households with no telephone or only wireless phones may bias estimates derived from health-related telephone surveys.

Methods. We calculated the difference between estimates for the full population of adults and estimates for adults with landline phones; data were from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey.

Results. When data from landline telephone surveys were weighted to match demographic characteristics of the full population, bias was generally less than 2 percentage points (range = 0.1–2.4). However, among young adults and low-income adults, we found greater bias (range = 1.7–5.9) for estimates of health insurance, smoking, binge drinking, influenza vaccination, and having a usual place for care.

Conclusions. From 2004 to 2007, the potential for noncoverage bias increased. Bias can be reduced through weighting adjustments. Therefore, telephone surveys limited to landline households may still be appropriate for health surveys of all adults and for surveys of subpopulations regarding health status. However, for some behavioral risk factors and health care service use indicators, caution is warranted when using landline surveys to draw inferences about young or low-income adults.