The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on RDD Cell Phone Response in the National Immunization Surveys
Jason Boim
NORC at the University of Chicago
Benjamin Skalland
NORC at the University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Holly A. Hill
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Michael Chen
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Natalie Sterrett
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
David Yankey
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Laurie Elam-Evans
National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC
The COVID-19 pandemic upended the lives of millions of Americans in 2020. One surprising change is the increased willingness of respondents to participate in telephone surveys. We demonstrate this effect by tracing respondent participation rates over time in the National Immunization Surveys (NIS). The NIS are random-digit-dial (RDD) cell-phone surveys sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that are used to assess vaccination coverage in the United States among children age 19-35 months (NIS-Child), adolescents 13-17 years (NIS-Teen), and influenza vaccination coverage among children 6 months-17 years (NIS-Flu). To examine the effect of the pandemic on survey participation, we present a weekly time series of the NIS-Child contact and cooperation rates from Spring 2019 to Spring 2020. We also examine whether the impact on NIS-Child cooperation rate differed among Census divisions of the country, demographic subpopulations, and whether the increase in respondent participation resulted in a more representative sample before weighting adjustments.