Reporting Bias of Dampness Problems and Smoking—A Result of Study Design

作     者：Malin Knutz Linda Hagerhed Engman Thorbjorn Gustavsson Laura von Kobyletzki Carl-Gustaf Bornehag 

作者机构：Department of Health ScienceKarlstad UniversityKarlstadSweden Department of Building Physics and Indoor EnvironmentSP Technical Research Institute of SwedenBorasSweden Institute of Clinical Research Lund UniversityLundSweden 

出 版 物：《Open Journal of Preventive Medicine》 (预防医学期刊（英文）)

年 卷 期：2014年第4卷第3期

页      面：107-115页

学科分类：1002[医学-临床医学] 100214[医学-肿瘤学] 10[医学] 

主　　题：Questionnaire Asthma Longitudinal Study Home Environment Children Dampness Smoking Bias 

摘      要：Using questionnaire is a common, efficient and cheap way to collect data in population-based epidemiological studies. However, there is a general trend of declining response rates leading to a higher risk for bias affecting the validity of results. Use of anonymous questionnaires and/or other ways of distributions, e.g. via schools instead of postal, may increase response rates, but can also lead to other types of systematic errors. This study indicates that results from cross-sectional questionnaire studies differ depending on distribution method and whether the survey is anonymous or not. Also the official purpose of the survey may affect the outcome. When studying well-known risk-factors and health effects, potential methodological problems like reporting bias must be considered in cross sectional studies.