econgirl
  • Home
  • blog
  • Recipes
  • Links
  • Liz's 15 Minute Guides

The Survey Chronicles: Health Expectations

10/26/2010

7 Comments

 
One thing my survey sought to measure was the respondent’s perceived risk of falling ill.  We expected this to be tricky, because many of the respondents are not highly number literate, and most have no concept of probability.  This was easily the most challenging part of our survey to design.

We tried to model our question after surveys that had been done in other developing economies, as detailed in Delevande, Gine and McKenzie.  These surveys asked respondents to allocate piles of stones to different pots, depending on how likely they thought different amounts of rainfall were.  The advantage of this is that the respondent does not even need to be able to count, he or she can just compare quantities, and see that one is larger.  Also, the respondent can easily make marginal changes, moving a few stones to a different pot, if you change the conditions of the questions slightly.  We adapted our questions to ask respondents the probability they would get sick over the next month.

What sounded like a simple and elegant model turned out to be an incredible struggle.  The responses we got failed basic logic tests as often as not; for example, respondents would predict a higher risk of getting sick once in the next month than once in the next year. After rounds and rounds of piloting, and consulting everyone we could think of, we identified the major problems, and attempted to address them:

1.       People don’t like to say they will get sick, because they think it will then happen.  We addressed this by changing our question to ask about the probability someone as healthy as them would get sick over the next month.  This seemed to help.

2.       “Chance” and “likelihood” don’t translate well in Dagbani.  We did our best to write the questions in English so that they would be as simple as possible, and then carefully worked through the Dagbani to find the clearest translation.

3.       People have little concept of marginal changes in probability.  In northern Ghana, something is either certain to happen, certain not to happen, or may happen (50-50).  Our weather reports, forecasting 40% chance of rain, would make no sense here.  Conceptualizing one thing as more likely than another, or conceptualizing small changes in risk, is completely counter-intuitive.  We never completely solved this problem.

4.       People don’t like stones.  Natural objects, like stones or beans, are associated with witches’ fortune-telling, which people don’t like.  And here we were asking them to predict future sickness with stones.  We switched to bottle caps, which as a man-made object, are less threatening.  My friends in Tamale drank beer very diligently and enthusiastically in the weeks leading up to my survey in order to provide the 720 bottle tops I needed. 

As a result of continuing problems with #3, this section proved to be the most difficult in our survey.  It was only a few questions long, but the time it took to explain the concept, go through examples with the respondent, and work through the questions added up to nearly 30 minutes, almost a third of the total survey.

7 Comments
help me lose weight fast link
3/29/2012 10:58:31 pm

I'm very happy to read this. This is the type of manual that needs to be given and not the random misinformation that's at the other blogs. Appreciate your sharing this greatest doc.

Reply
oral surgeon nyc link
8/15/2012 07:59:54 pm

Thanks for contributing your important time to post such an interesting & useful collection.It would be knowledgeable & resources are always of great need to everyone. Please keep continue sharing.

Reply
Besthomecaremn link
3/19/2014 01:39:46 pm

Hello I read your comment for this blog ,which so nice.Really this is more knowledgeable blog for me.and discussed point by author is wonderful.

Reply
botox Brisbane link
8/28/2012 07:28:04 pm

thank you so much for this nice study post. its vary informative for me i bookmark this post and sure to come back soon.

Reply
Fibroids Treatment link
8/28/2012 10:59:14 pm

I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this post. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me

Reply
Cosmetic Surgery NI link
12/26/2012 05:59:24 pm

For certain health problems, body mass index, derived from the ratio of height to weight, is the best overall predictor. Men and women with mental health disorders, across all diagnoses, are more likely to have experienced domestic violence than the general population.

Reply
online personal loans link
10/11/2013 11:03:28 pm

He that can have patience can have what he will.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    About Liz

    I have worked in economic policy and research in Washington, D.C. and Ghana. My husband and I recently moved to Guyana, where I am working for the Ministry of Finance. I like riding motorcycle, outdoor sports, foreign currencies, capybaras, and having opinions. 

    Archives

    December 2016
    November 2016
    July 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    March 2013
    February 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    October 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009

    Categories

    All
    Auto Industry
    Behavioral Economics
    Budget
    China
    Conflict
    Corruption
    Crime
    Currency
    Development
    Dollar
    Economic Data
    Economists
    Environment
    Fashion
    Federal Reserve
    Finance
    Food
    Gender
    Ghana
    Haiti
    Health Care
    India
    Inflation
    Microeconomics
    Money
    Politics
    Poverty
    Race
    Rcts
    Reading Recommendations
    Regulation
    Religion
    Sports
    Stimulus
    Survey
    Taxes
    Technology
    Trade
    Travel
    Viewing Recommendations

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • blog
  • Recipes
  • Links
  • Liz's 15 Minute Guides