Comparison of Characteristics of Cell-Only, Cell-Mostly, and Landline Households

• Activity Number: 159
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 2, 2010 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Wei Zeng*+ and Benjamin Skalland and Karen Wooten and Meena Khare
• Companies: NORC and NORC and National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases and National Center for Health Statistics
• Keywords: National Immunization Survey ; telephone Dual Frame Design ; Survey Response Propensity ; Cell-mostly Household

Abstract

The increase of cell-only and cell-mostly populations in the U.S. has led survey organizations to sample from a cell-phone frame as well as the traditional landline frame. With the dual-frame design, cell-mostly households can appear in both frames. Cell-mostly households are defined here as households with both landline and cell telephones that are somewhat unlikely or very unlikely to answer their landline telephone. For weighting purposes, it is critical to understand how this population differs from the cell-only and landline populations. This paper will examine three types of households - cell-only, cell-mostly, and landline households - sampled from dual frames by using The National 2009 H1N1 Flu Survey data. Household types will be compared with regard to their propensity to respond, characteristics related to key survey questions, and demographic characteristics.