Final published version
Licence: CC BY: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Adjustment for survey non-representativeness using record-linkage: refined estimates of alcohol consumption by deprivation in Scotland. / Gorman, Emma; Leyland, Alastair H.; McCartney, Gerry et al.
In: Addiction, Vol. 112, No. 7, 07.2017, p. 1270-1280.Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Adjustment for survey non-representativeness using record-linkage:
T2 - refined estimates of alcohol consumption by deprivation in Scotland
AU - Gorman, Emma
AU - Leyland, Alastair H.
AU - McCartney, Gerry
AU - Katikireddi, Srinivasa Vittal
AU - Rutherford, Lisa
AU - Graham, Lesley
AU - Robinson, Mark
AU - Gray, Linsay
PY - 2017/7
Y1 - 2017/7
N2 - Background and aims: Analytical approaches to addressing survey non-participation bias typically use only demographic information to improve estimates. We applied a novel methodology which uses health information from data linkage to adjust for non-representativeness. We illustrate the method by presenting adjusted alcohol consumption estimates for Scotland.Design: Data on consenting respondents to the Scottish Health Surveys (SHeSs) 1995-2010 were linked confidentially to routinely collected hospital admission and mortality records. Synthetic observations representing non-respondents were created using general population data. Multiple imputation was performed to compute adjusted alcohol estimates given a range of assumptions about the missing data. Adjusted estimates of mean weekly consumption were additionally calibrated to per-capita alcohol sales data.Setting: Scotland.Participants: 13 936 male and 18 021 female respondents to the SHeSs 1995-2010, aged 20-64years.Measurements: Weekly alcohol consumption, non-, binge- and problem-drinking.Findings: Initial adjustment for non-response resulted in estimates of mean weekly consumption that were elevated by up to 17.8% [26.5units (18.6-34.4)] compared with corrections based solely on socio-demographic data [22.5 (17.7-27.3)]; other drinking behaviour estimates were little changed. Under more extreme assumptions the overall difference was up to 53%, and calibrating to sales estimates resulted in up to 88% difference. Increases were especially pronounced among males in deprived areas.Conclusions: The use of routinely collected health data to reduce bias arising from survey non-response resulted in higher alcohol consumption estimates among working-age males in Scotland, with less impact for females. This new method of bias reduction can be generalized to other surveys to improve estimates of alternative harmful behaviours.
AB - Background and aims: Analytical approaches to addressing survey non-participation bias typically use only demographic information to improve estimates. We applied a novel methodology which uses health information from data linkage to adjust for non-representativeness. We illustrate the method by presenting adjusted alcohol consumption estimates for Scotland.Design: Data on consenting respondents to the Scottish Health Surveys (SHeSs) 1995-2010 were linked confidentially to routinely collected hospital admission and mortality records. Synthetic observations representing non-respondents were created using general population data. Multiple imputation was performed to compute adjusted alcohol estimates given a range of assumptions about the missing data. Adjusted estimates of mean weekly consumption were additionally calibrated to per-capita alcohol sales data.Setting: Scotland.Participants: 13 936 male and 18 021 female respondents to the SHeSs 1995-2010, aged 20-64years.Measurements: Weekly alcohol consumption, non-, binge- and problem-drinking.Findings: Initial adjustment for non-response resulted in estimates of mean weekly consumption that were elevated by up to 17.8% [26.5units (18.6-34.4)] compared with corrections based solely on socio-demographic data [22.5 (17.7-27.3)]; other drinking behaviour estimates were little changed. Under more extreme assumptions the overall difference was up to 53%, and calibrating to sales estimates resulted in up to 88% difference. Increases were especially pronounced among males in deprived areas.Conclusions: The use of routinely collected health data to reduce bias arising from survey non-response resulted in higher alcohol consumption estimates among working-age males in Scotland, with less impact for females. This new method of bias reduction can be generalized to other surveys to improve estimates of alternative harmful behaviours.
KW - Alcohol consumption
KW - alcohol-related harm
KW - bias
KW - epidemiology
KW - health surveys
KW - non-participation
KW - record-linkage
KW - Scotland
KW - POPULATION-BASED HEALTH
KW - NONRESPONSE BIAS
KW - FOLLOW-UP
KW - CAGE QUESTIONNAIRE
KW - SALES DATA
KW - MORTALITY
KW - POLICY
KW - PARTICIPANTS
KW - COHORT
KW - UNIT
U2 - 10.1111/add.13797
DO - 10.1111/add.13797
M3 - Journal article
VL - 112
SP - 1270
EP - 1280
JO - Addiction
JF - Addiction
SN - 0965-2140
IS - 7
ER -