Smokers' BMI and perceived health: Does the order of questions matter?

Abstract

We surveyed 431 daily smokers between November 2014 and March 2015 to examine the impact of the order of questions on the response to a self-reported health question as part of a larger experimental study. We randomized the question order, with some respondents providing their weight prior to self-reporting their health, while others did the opposite. We found that self-reported health outcomes are worse when smokers are first asked to report their weight. However, the order of questions only seems to impact those who are overweight as we did not find evidence that the order of questions affected responses for those with a BMI below 25. These findings suggest that the order of asking self-rated health and weight questions appears to matter, at least for overweight current smokers.

Why respondents select no-opinion response option in consumer research?

“…In the fi rst case, as indicated by studies conducted, inter alia, by Krosnick et al (2002), Schwarz and Clore (1983), the respondent's motivation to participate in the study decreases as they progress to the next question while their inclination to opt for a no-opinion response increases. Furthermore, a study by Rousu et al (2017) showed that smokers reported themselves in worse health when they were asked to report their weight fi rst. A similar study by Lasorsa (2003) indicated that the respondents who were fi rst asked about their knowledge of politics reported a lower level of interest in politics than those who were only asked to state their interests.…”