No evidence of response bias in a population-based childhood cancer survivor questionnaire survey - Results from the Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivor Study.

Rueegg, Corina S; Gianinazzi, Micòl E; Michel, Gisela; Zwahlen, Marcel; von der Weid, Nicolas X; Kuehni, Claudia E; Swiss Paediatric Oncology Group, SPOG (2017). No evidence of response bias in a population-based childhood cancer survivor questionnaire survey - Results from the Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. PLoS ONE, 12(5), e0176442. Public Library of Science 10.1371/journal.pone.0176442

Preview	Text Rueegg PLoSOne 2017.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY). Download (1MB) | Preview
Preview	Text Rueegg PLoSOne 2017_supplmat.pdf - Supplemental Material Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY). Download (115kB) | Preview

PURPOSE

This is the first study to quantify potential nonresponse bias in a childhood cancer survivor questionnaire survey. We describe early and late responders and nonresponders, and estimate nonresponse bias in a nationwide questionnaire survey of survivors.

METHODS

In the Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, we compared characteristics of early responders (who answered an initial questionnaire), late responders (who answered after ≥1 reminder) and nonresponders. Sociodemographic and cancer-related information was available for the whole population from the Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry. We compared observed prevalence of typical outcomes in responders to the expected prevalence in a complete (100% response) representative population we constructed in order to estimate the effect of nonresponse bias. We constructed the complete population using inverse probability of participation weights.

RESULTS

Of 2328 survivors, 930 returned the initial questionnaire (40%); 671 returned the questionnaire after ≥1reminder (29%). Compared to early and late responders, we found that the 727 nonresponders (31%) were more likely male, aged <20 years, French or Italian speaking, of foreign nationality, diagnosed with lymphoma or a CNS or germ cell tumor, and treated only with surgery. But observed prevalence of typical estimates (somatic health, medical care, mental health, health behaviors) was similar among the sample of early responders (40%), all responders (69%), and the complete representative population (100%). In this survey, nonresponse bias did not seem to influence observed prevalence estimates.

CONCLUSION

Nonresponse bias may play only a minor role in childhood cancer survivor studies, suggesting that results can be generalized to the whole population of such cancer survivors and applied in clinical practice.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

569 since deposited on 04 May 2017
37 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item