The Future of Household Telephone Surveys on Tobacco: Methodological and Contextual Issues

Co-chairs:

Roberta Ferrence, Executive Director, OTRU
K. Stephen Brown, Principal Investigator, OTRU

Presenters

Susan Bondy, K. Stephen Brown, David Northrup, Thomas Stephens, Mary Thompson, Diane Kunyk, Judy Snider, Julie McAuley, Charles Victor, Lori Diemert, Murray Kaiserman, Christian Boudreau

Brief Description

Household telephone survey data are an important tool for tobacco-control. Survey data are used for a range of purposes by researchers, monitoring and evaluation analysts, public health professionals and policy-makers. Increasingly, we are faced with methodological and contextual issues that can affect the representativeness of surveys and the portrayal of smokers in household telephone surveys, and this potentially limits our understanding of smokers’ behaviours and perceptions. With declines in smoking prevalence, it is becoming more difficult for household telephone surveys to locate and capture smokers. Response rates have also decreased, especially within large urban areas, so that obtaining a representative sample of smokers may require a larger sample and more resources. With more households banning smoking indoors, it may also be harder to reach smokers using land-line telephones. These issues have implications for the generalizability of tobacco control research for the next decade and beyond. It will also be important to review previous recommendations on questions used in household surveys to measure prevalence, level of smoking and other behavioural items in light of the issues outlined above.

The proposed working session will address methodological and contextual issues related to the quality of data from tobacco-use surveys used in tobacco-control research. Presenters will prepare and circulate a two-page statement on their topic to the presenter group and to interested participants prior to the conference. In the first session of the morning of Day 1, Roberta Ferrence will outline the key issues with tobacco-related surveys. Thomas Stephens will speak on the history of tobacco surveys in Canada. Using Ontario examples, David Northrup will illustrate the definitions of response rates by describing their changing patterns. Sue Bondy will explore the measurement issues in tobacco-control while Diane Kunyk will provide an advocate’s reflection on uses of survey data. In the afternoon session, chaired by K. Stephen Brown, presenters will explore the implications of non-response for survey representativeness. Judy Snider and Julie McAuley will discuss the representativeness of cross-sectional federal tobacco surveys. Charles Victor and Lori Diemert will provide an in depth look at the issues and solutions relating to longitudinal surveys and attrition. Murray Kaiserman will explain the methodological issues in the reporting of cigarette use and consumption. The session will end with an open-ended discussion by participants and presenters.

In the morning session of Day 2, Dealing with Non-Response, K. Stephen Brown, the session chair, will compare school-based and telephone-based methods for collecting tobacco-use data from youth. Mary Thompson will examine the effects of collecting survey data on the web and by telephone. Christian Boudreau will discuss the challenges of declining response rates by sharing experience from the International Tobacco Control Policy surveys. There will be a discussion at the end of the session for participants and presenters. In the afternoon session, chaired by Roberta Ferrence, Thomas Stephens will lead an open discussion where participants and presenters will develop key questions and issues related to the previous three sessions, discuss possible answers and solutions, and develop strategies for next steps. In the last hour of the session, presenters and organizers will, based on the concurrent Workshop, synthesize and consolidate the current state of conducting tobacco-use surveys among general populations and provide key recommendations for future practices.

Expected Outcome

Based on the proceedings and materials of the Workshop, we will produce an OTRU Special Report that will be distributed to relevant stakeholders, including survey researchers in government and universities. Based on this report, we will produce a manuscript for submission to a peer-reviewed journal and an OTRU Update for dissemination to the tobacco control community.

Potential Impact

This concurrent working session will consolidate knowledge on the current state of conducting tobacco-use surveys for tobacco-control research and surveillance among general populations. With new knowledge and insight gained from this session, we expect to address the contextual and methodological challenges faced by users of these surveys and provide recommendations to overcome these challenges in the future.

return to Concurrent Working Sessions Schedule