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Health and Quality of Life Outcomes
Published in: Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 1/2013

Open Access 01-12-2013 | Research

Non response, incomplete and inconsistent responses to self-administered health-related quality of life measures in the general population: patterns, determinants and impact on the validity of estimates — a population-based study in France using the MOS SF-36

Authors: Joel Coste, Laurent Quinquis, Etienne Audureau, Jacques Pouchot

Published in: Health and Quality of Life Outcomes | Issue 1/2013

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Abstract

Background

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures are increasingly used in the general population. However, little is known about patterns and determinants of unanswered or unusable questionnaires and their consequences on estimates of HRQoL.

Methods

The 2003 Decennial Health Survey collected socio-demographic and health information, including HRQoL, for 30,782 adults representative of the French population. The pattern, determinants and impact on estimate validity of non, incomplete and inconsistent responses to the SF-36 questionnaire were determined. For this, phi coefficients, polytomous logistic regression models and multiple imputation methods were used.

Results

Only 48% of the subjects eligible for the HRQoL measurement provided a complete and consistent SF-36 questionnaire. Three patterns of non-response and five of partial (incomplete or inconsistent) response were identified, sharing largely similar socio-demographic profiles (higher age, lower educational level and economic status, foreign background, and isolated). The consequences of non and partial responses on HRQoL estimates were large in several groups of subjects although these biases ran in opposite directions and partially neutralized each other.

Conclusions

When measuring HRQoL in the general population, missing and inconsistent data are frequent, especially in elderly, educationally and socio-economically deprived, foreign and isolated groups. Methods for handling missing data are required to correct for potentially the associated and serious selection and non-differential information biases in studies targeting or investigating these groups.
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Metadata
Title
Non response, incomplete and inconsistent responses to self-administered health-related quality of life measures in the general population: patterns, determinants and impact on the validity of estimates — a population-based study in France using the MOS SF-36
Authors
Joel Coste
Laurent Quinquis
Etienne Audureau
Jacques Pouchot
Publication date
01-12-2013
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Health and Quality of Life Outcomes / Issue 1/2013
Electronic ISSN: 1477-7525
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-11-44

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