Table Of Content92NO020E Recensement Census
no.10
c.3
i+i CStaantiasdtaique CStaantiasdtiacs Canada
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STCAATNIASTDIACS STCATAINSATDIAQUH i
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NCT Report No. 10
EDIT FAILURE ANDRESPONSE RATES
Matthew Briggs
SocialSurveyMethods Division
July,1994
HIGHLIGHTS
Overall,beforefollow-upnon-responserateswereslightlylowerforthe
EFSthanthosefoundinthe1991EditSampleStudy.
Non-response rates were drastically reduced by follow-up. Only a
handful ofquestions had after follow-up non-response rates ofmore
than4%.
55%ofrespondentcompleted questionnaires failed editusingtherule
ofsix. The1991 EditSampleStudy found a2BEditFailureRateof
87%. Ifthe1991mandatory/non-mandatoryeditmethodhadbeenused,
theeditfailureratewouldhavebeenaboutthesameasin1991.
Useoftheruleofsixinsteadof1991editsfortheNCTdidnot
causealargeincreaseinafterfollow-upnon-responserates.
.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION • l
METHODOLOGY '" l
RESPONSE RATES •••• *
-Method 2
- Results 4
- Comparisons with 1991 ESS 8
EVALUATION OF THE RULE OF SIX ••• 9
- Introduction • ••• 9
- Results - Follow-Up • 10
-DataQuality . 15
- Application ofRuleofSix by Field Staff 19
Response Rate Tables Appendix
Bibliography
INTRODUCTION
The 1993 National CensusTest (NCT) was themajorfieldtestofproposedquestionnaire
changesunderthe 1996ContentDeterminationProject. TheNCTtookplaceinNovember
1993,andselectedhouseholdsfromthetenprovincesusingaLabourForceSurvey(UPS)based
sample and twelve special samples consisting of certain ethnic groups residing in large
metropolitancentres. Anynewquestions,ormajorchangestoquestionsproposedforthe1996
CensusweretobetestedintheNCT. Althoughthetestinvolvedallaspectsofsurveyand
Censustaking,itsprimarygoalwastoprovidesubjectmatteranalystsandCensusManagement
withthenecessarydatatodecidewhetherornottheneworimprovedquestionsworkedwell
enoughtobeconsideredforinclusiononthe1996Censusquestionnaire.
METHODOLOGY
TheNCTusedtwodifferentmethodstosamplehouseholds. Approximately17,000households
wereselectedusingoldrotationsoftheLFS. TheLFSusesamulti-stagestratifiedsampling
techniquewhichkeepstravellingcostslowerthanusingamorerandomsamplingmethod. Also,
useoftheLFSdesignprovidedasamplethatwasnationallyandregionallyrepresentative,and
alloweduseoftheLFSweightingsystemwhichwasalreadyinplace. Another4,000households
wereselectedasthetwelveSpecialPopulationSamples. Thesesampleswereselectedtotryto
targetspecificethnicpopulationsinlargecities. Tenofthesampleswereselectedusingthe
1991Censusdatabase,andtwowereselectedusingMetismembershiplists. ThespecificEAs
selectedforseveralofthesamplesthatwereselectedusingtheCensusbasewerechosenonthe
adviceofthelocalRegionalOffice. TheremainderwerechosenbypinpointingEAswithahigh
concentrationofthedesiredethnicgroup.
TheNCThadanEditFailureStudy(EFS)basedonthesameideaastheEditSampleStudy
(ESS)carriedoutforthe1991Census,andtheResponseRateSampleStudy(RRSS)carriedout
forthe1988NCT. TheEFSinvolveddatacaptureofasampleofquestionnairesimmediately
aftermailback(totheregionaloffice)bytherespondent. Thisprovidesadatabaseofrespondent
answersbeforeeditandfollow-uphavebeenattempted,andbeforetheinterviewerhasinany
wayalteredthequestionnairedata. OnehalfofthequestionnairesfromtheLFSbasedsample
hadspeciallymarkedlabelswhichdesignatedthemforcaptureasapartoftheEFSiftheywere
ruentmuarrnekdedtoqutehsetiRonOnaibryesN,osveentmtboedrat3a0tcha.ptuTreh,esaendqutehsetniornentauirrneesdtwoetrheetrheegnulsarepfalroawteodfftrheomNCthTe
questionnaires whichwerebeing sorted into interviewer assignments and then sentto the
interviewersforeditandfollow-up. TheEFSdifferedfromtheESSinthatquestionnaireswere
capturedintheROs,asopposedtophotocopiesofquestionnairesbeingcapturedinOttawa. The
EFS differedfromtheRRSSbecausenofollow-upwasdoneforRRSSquestionnaires, the
questionnairesweresimplymailedbacktoOttawaandcaptured.
RESPONSERATES
Method
Asdoneforthe1991BSS,itemresponserateswereealenlatedforeachquestiononacompleted
questionnaire. Recotdsmatwereentirelyblankwereexcludedfromthedatabaseonwhichthe
responserates werecalculated. MsmeanttotOutofScope, Refusal, andNon-Contact
households, as well as Temporary Resident and Foreign Resident households were not
consideredinthecalculationofresponserates. TheserateswerecalculatedforSubjectMatter
analyststoprevidethemwithanindicatorofhowwelltheirquestionswonted. Foreachstep
andquestiononthequestionnaire,thenon-responseratewascalculated,alongwiththemutaple
responsetate(ifapplicable)and/orthepartialresponserate(ifapplicable). Responserateswere
alsocalculatedbasedonmanydifferentsetsofdata. Responserateswerecalculatedbasedon:
