Cell Phone Coverage in an ABS Multi-Mode Design

• Activity Number: 422
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Survey Research Methods
• Author(s): Kanru Xia*+ and Whitney Murphy
• Companies: NORC and NORC
• Keywords: Cell phone only ; multi-mode address-based sampling

Abstract

By the end of 2011, 32.3 percent of adults lived in cell phone only (CPO) households. Multi-mode address-based sampling (ABS) has been assumed to cover CPO households that are missed in traditional landline random-digit dialing (RDD) designs. The ABS frame covers nearly all addresses, and data collected via mail allows us to capture data from these individuals. No literature, however, has yet to publish statistics on how well multi-mode ABS designs capture the CPO households in a hard-to-reach population. We attempt to answer this question using data collected in Phase 4 of the Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health across the U.S. (REACH U.S.) Risk Factor Survey. Our results suggest that ABS designs with a mail component cover CPO households and that the inclusion of these CPO households significantly changes some health estimates.