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B. Other 2002 limitations of the dataTelephone coverage
(households with telephones) varies by state and also by sub-population.
Telephone coverage averages 97.6% for U.S. states as a whole, but ranges
from 1.1% noncoverage in Connecticut and New Hampshire, to 6.6% in
Mississippi. It is estimated that 23.8% of households in Puerto Rico are
without telephone service. Data on telephone coverage in United States
households are available at
http://factfinder.census.gov.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania asked all survey respondents the core questions on the 2002
survey, but five different sets of modules were asked based on the residence
of the survey respondents. Individuals in Armstrong, Franklin, Chester, and
Lancaster counties were all asked different sets of modules and the
remaining state residents were asked a different set of module questions.
This resulted in five different questionnaires being implemented in
Pennsylvania and all module data collected was moved to the state-added
questions section. Illinois used a dual questionnaire and collected data on
core items involving health status, health care access, exercise, asthma,
diabetes, immunization, tobacco use, prostate cancer screening, colorectal
cancer screening, and HIV/AIDS knowledge and prevention, and demographics
from all eligible respondents. The alcohol consumption core question on
drinking and driving (variable DRINKDRI) was asked of about half the
respondents while the rest of the questions (ALCDAY3, AVEDRNK, and DRNK2GE5)
were asked of all respondents. For the firearms core questions, question 1
(FIREARM4) was asked to all respondents, while questions 2 and 3 (GUNLOAD
and LOADULK2) were asked on only half of the respondents. Fruit and
vegetable consumption, oral health, seat belt use, family planning, and
women’s health questions were asked of about half of eligible respondents.
Modules on hypertension awareness, cholesterol awareness, physical activity,
healthy days, and childhood asthma were asked of approximately half of all
eligible respondents.
California
California modified the wording of the following core questions: firearms,
health plan, diabetes, the frequency of alcohol consumption, Hispanic
ethnicity question, level of education, and household income questions. The
data from the firearms questions are not included in the data set. In
addition, California used different age cut-offs for the colorectal cancer
screening questions. These questions may have limited comparability to those
of other reporting areas.
Other states
Some states had a problem with skip patterns in the Health Care Access
section of the Core Survey. For January and part of February for some
states, because of CATI programming issues, question 4 (MEDCARE) and
question 5 (MEDREAS) had the same variable name. This produced a potential
error in the data if someone answered the MEDCARE question “1. Yes” to
MEDCARE and then answered 2, 7, or 9 to MEDREAS, their results were
overwritten and may have been lost. Several states did call individuals a
second time to clarify the MEDCARE and MEDREAS variable values. There were
several issues in regards to the new disposition codes that were implemented
this year, especially the new code for partial completes (coded 120) and
completed interviews (coded 110). In the past, interviews terminated during
or after the demographics section would have been coded as a complete
interview and the remaining questions unanswered would be coded as refused
by the interviewer. For 2002 states handled partial complete interviews
differently; they were generally handled in one of three ways: 1) answered
the remaining questions as refused and coded the record a 110 Complete, 2)
answered the remaining questions as refused and coded the record a 120
Partial complete, or 3) did not ask the remaining questions (answers left as
missing) and coded the record a 120 Partial complete. The differences in how
the interviews are dispositioned and where in the survey the interview was
terminated will have an impact on refusal rates for certain
questions/modules and will also affect numbers of completes and partial
completes. This will vary state to state. These factors should be taken into
account when determining which records to include in any analyses. Changes
are being made in 2003 to further clarify the difference between partial
completes and complete interviews using just disposition codes.
Several states continue to ask the Diabetes module questions directly
after the diabetes questions in the core of the survey, in addition several
states ask the Adult Asthma module questions after the asthma questions in
the core. Some states have also asked the Childhood Asthma module questions
in the demographics section of the core survey after question 6 (CHILDREN) —
number of children under age 18 in household. There were a few states that
asked the Childhood Asthma module questions of respondents that answered
“Refused” to the demographics question assessing the number children in the
household. Most states collecting module asked the questions only of
respondents indicating there were children in the household.
More information about survey item nonresponse can be found in the
2002 BRFSS Summary Data Quality Report and in the respective states’
Data Quality Reports.
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