Experiences with the Use of Address-Based Sampling in Two In-Person National Household Surveys

• Activity Number: 597
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Thursday, August 7, 2014 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Survey Research Methods Section
• Author(s): Jennifer Kali*+ and Richard Sigman and Weijia Ren and Yumiko Sugawara and Michael Jones and Adam Chu
• Companies: Westat and Westat and Westat and Westat and Westat and Westat
• Keywords: Address Based Sampling ; coverage ; area samples ; in-person surveys

Abstract

When selecting multistage samples for in-person household surveys, the final stage of sampling typically involves sampling dwelling units or addresses from lists of these units within sampled geographic areas generally known as segments. The use of address-based sampling (ABS) frames based on USPS-lists as the source of address lists is a cost-effective alternative to the traditional listing of dwelling units by field staff. This paper discusses the implementation of an ABS frame for two in-person household surveys. An Address-Coverage Enhancement (ACE) procedure, which involves the sampling of geography-based units in which field staff record potential off-of-frame addresses and the sampling of confirmed off-of-frame addresses for assignment to data collection, will be evaluated for its effectiveness. Variables included on the frame will be evaluated for their usefulness in sampling, including the vacancy indicator and the educational institution indicator. Methods used to sample clustered units (called drop points) which are included on the frame will also be evaluated.