Population-based surveys on the frequency of common skin diseases in adults-is there a risk of response bias?

Abstract

Population-based surveys on the frequency of common skin diseases are important in determining the health needs of a community. As they rely on voluntary presentation, there is a risk of response bias which may compromise the quality of the data obtained. The aim was to determine in what way and to what degree response bias may occur in a population-based survey on the frequency of common skin diseases in adults. A follow-up study was conducted on 1043 out of 2500 adults who did not attend for examination as part of a randomized population-based survey on the frequency of common skin diseases amongst adults in Maryborough, Central Victoria, Australia. Nonrespondents were more likely to be at the extremes of age, retired, unemployed and less likely to report that they had a history of skin disease than the respondents. Subsequent examination of a sample of the nonrespondents revealed they were more likely to have skin cancers and Campbell de Morgan angiomas than the respondents. These differences cannot be fully explained on the basis of an age-related response bias alone. Response bias is a risk in population-based surveys of common skin diseases which rely on voluntary presentation. Some attempt should be made to sample the nonrespondents in these surveys to determine the nature and extent of any bias and to adjust for it, if necessary.

Chemical exposure and symptoms of hand dermatitis in construction painters

“…For reasons of membership confidentiality, the trade union could not allow a non-respondent analysis to be performed. The actual prevalence of hand dermatitis could be lower than our results indicate, if the non-respondents were to have less symptoms than the respondents (19).…”

“…The 2 case-definitions for hand dermatitis (liberal and strict criteria) yielded 2 dichotomous outcome variables which were derived from self-reported Contact Dermatitis 2005: 53: [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] skin symptoms on the hands and forearms. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the ORs and the 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs).…”

“…The unionization rate is nearly 80%. A cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 1000 painters and 1000 carpenters, as a part of a project on chemical exposure and health hazards among house painters; also neurotoxic and respiratory effects were Contact Dermatitis 2005: 53: [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] Copyright # Blackwell Munksgaard 2005 Printed in Singapore. All rights reserved CONTACT DERMATITIS studied (10,11).…”

The assessment of dermatological needs in resource‐poor regions

“…The reasons for this disparity are not clear, although it seems to occur more frequently in older individuals, but patients are just as likely to underreport the potentially serious as the trivial; an Australian analysis of the non‐attenders, i.e. those invited to come for examination at the Maryborough community survey but who did not attend, showed that non‐attenders were more likely to have skin cancers and also Campbell de Morgan spots 19 …”

“…those invited to come for examination at the Maryborough community survey but who did not attend, showed that non-attenders were more likely to have skin cancers and also Campbell de Morgan spots. 19 Other surveys have concentrated on disease prevalence in specific groups. For instance, a study in Egypt showed that over 100% of mentally ill and 89.5% of blind children had at least one skin disease compared with 24.2% of age-matched controls.…”