Implications of Misclassification Errors in Empirical Studies of Adolescent Smoking Behaviours

Abstract

Misclassification errors in a dependent variable can introduce attenuation bias to covariate effects in a binary choice model. Misreporting of smoking behaviours by adolescents has been widely documented. However, the consequence in empirical studies of adolescent smoking participation has received little attention. This study uses the Health Survey for England (HSE) to investigate the extent and implication of misclassification errors in self-reported smoking among adolescents aged 11-15 years. The HSE contains both a self-reported smoking component and an objective measure of smoking obtained from saliva cotinine assays. Saliva cotinine concentration ≥12 ng/ml is considered the 'true' indicator of adolescent smoking participation against which self-reported smoking is compared. The findings show that smoking is misreported in this age group, resulting in a downwards bias of marginal effect estimates. Given the widespread use of self-reported smoking data, this study explores the performance of the Hausman, Abrevaya and Scott-Morton-modified maximum likelihood estimation (HAS approach) in recovering true estimates of covariate effects. In this context, the HAS approach performs better when the misclassification probabilities are treated as constants compared with when they are treated as conditionally dependent parameters. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Social Interactions in Health Behaviors and Conditions

“…However, smoking status is more likely to be underreported by populations in smokingcessation programs (Boyd et al 1998) or by teenagers (Patrick et al 1994, Rebagliato 2002. Edoka (2017) shows that smoking misreporting among adolescents results in a downwards bias of marginal effect estimates of tobacco use. In the case of alcohol use, the evidence also points towards a high reliability of general population self-reports (Polich 1982, Glovannucci 1991.…”

The Impact of Tobacco Control Policies on Adolescent Smoking: Comparing Self-Reports and Biomarkers

“…Adolescents may fear reprisals from admitting to illegal behavior or have trouble conceptualizing the amount they smoke in terms of cigarettes per day (Caraballo, Giovino, and Pechacek 2004;Malcon et al 2008;Patrick et al 1994;Murray et al 1987). Indeed a recent paper finds that, using serum cotinine levels as a marker for true smoking status, self-reported smoking is underreported in adolescents in England (Edoka 2017). This bias attenuates marginal effects when estimating the effects of smoking determinants.…”