RDD Unplugged: Findings from a Household Survey Using a Cell Overlap Design

• Activity Number: 578
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 3, 2011 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): John Hall and Barbara Lepidus Carlson*+
• Companies: Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. and Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
• Keywords: RDD ; cell phone ; dual-frame ; sampling

Abstract

Sampling the U.S. residential population using list-assisted random digit dialing (RDD) of landline telephone numbers has become problematic because of the increasing proportion of the population that is reachable only through cell phones. To address this coverage problem, round 6 of the Health Tracking Household Survey (HTHS6) employed an RDD dual-frame "cell overlap design": samples were selected from landline and cell frames, and interviews were attempted with all contacted households. Other approaches sometimes used to address the coverage issue include address-based sampling and dual-frame RDD designs in which the cell frame is screened for cell-only households. HTHS6 asked a series of questions about telephone usage from respondents in both the landline and cell sample frames. This paper will discuss contact and cooperation rates, along with number of calls per complete, by sample frame. In addition, this paper will provide information about landline and cell telephone usage by sample type and compare characteristics among the various telephone usage categories (cell only, cell mostly, some of each, landline mostly, landline only), including demographics, health status, and i