Healthcare Polls Skewed as People Cut the Cord, CDC Says
The national trend of cutting the cord and using only a wireless phone has major implications for health surveys and other polls, the National Center for Health Statistics said in a report. The potential for bias as statistics for some groups go unreported “remains a real and growing threat to surveys conducted only on landline telephones,” the report said. The trend of cutting the cord was seen as potentially skewing poll results prior to the November presidential election. But for health surveys, the trend could be even more problematic since results from many at risk groups go unreported, said NCHS, a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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NCHS said based on its accounting, 17.5 percent of homes had only wireless phones during the first half of 2008, an increase of 1.7 percentage points from the last half of 2007. In addition, 13.3 percent of U.S. homes receive all or almost all calls on a wireless phone even though they have a wireline phone, the group said.
“Most major survey research organizations, including NCHS, do not include wireless telephone numbers when conducting random-digit-dial telephone surveys,” the group said: “Therefore, the inability to reach households with only wireless telephones (or with no telephone service) has potential implications for results from health surveys, political polls, and other research conducted using random-digit-dial telephone surveys.”
At-risk groups may be under-reported as a result of the trend, NCHS said. The group said the percentage of Americans without health insurance coverage was twice as high in wireless-only homes than those with a wireline phone. Binge drinking (i.e., having five or more alcoholic drinks in one day during the past year) was also twice as prevalent among adults who just have a wireless phone, the group said. People with just wireless phones are also more likely to smoke, the group said.
“It’s not really a new issue, and the polling firms we have talked to claim they can adjust for it,"said a wireless industry official, who said some raised the same questions about political polls before the presidential election. “Because the polls turned out to be right on the money, I'm inclined to believe the pollsters have figured this out,” the official said.