Systematic Measurement Error in Self-Reported Health: Is anchoring vignettes the way out?

Dasgupta, Aparajita (2014): Systematic Measurement Error in Self-Reported Health: Is anchoring vignettes the way out?

Abstract

This paper studies the pattern of non-random measurement error in self-assessed health responses across population subgroups and examines whether anchoring of vignettes can be used to identify this bias. It uses unique data from the World Health Survey (WHS)-SAGE survey(wave 1) from India, that has self-reported assessments of health linked to anchoring vignettes as well as objective measures like measured anthropometrics and performance tests on a range of health domains. Both estimations using individual fixed effects and anchored-vignettes response reveal strong systematic reporting bias across subgroups. Controlling for a battery of objective health measures, we implicitly test and confirm the validity of the ‘response consistency’ assumption used in vignettes technique. Further analysis using individual fixed effects in a two-stage regression estimation reveals substantial individual reporting bias even after accounting for the usual covariates controlled in a regression. The analysis finds that non-random measurement error in SAH cannot be simply dealt with by controlling for socio-economic covariates in a typical regression framework. This exposes the problem of cross-comparability using self-reported health response in the context of a developing country setting and lends support to the use of vignettes for identifying this bias.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Self-assessed health; vignettes approach; measurement error; response consistency
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I14 - Health and Inequality; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O2 - Development Planning and Policy

References

Antman, Francisca, and David McKenzie. (2007) Earnings Mobility and Measurement Error: A Pseudo-Panel Approach, Economic Development and Cultural Change 56(1):125.

Baron‐Epel, O., Dushenat, M., & Friedman, N. (2001) Evaluation of the consumer model: relationship between patients' expectations, perceptions and satisfaction with care, International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 13(4), 317-323.

Bago d'Uva, T., Doorslaer, E.V., Lindeboom, M., O'Donnell, O.,(2008) Does reporting heterogeneity bias the measurement of health disparities? Health Economics 17,351–375. Bago d’Uva, T., Lindeboom, M., O’Donnell, O., Van Doorslaer, E. (2010) Slipping anchor? Testing the vignettes approach to identification and correction of reporting heterogeneity. mimeo. Erasmus School of Economics. Banerjee, A., Deaton, A., & Duflo, E. (2004) Health, health care, and economic development: Wealth, health, and health services in rural Rajasthan., American Economic Review, 94(2), 326.

Bound John(1991) Self Reported Versus Objective Measures of Health in Retirement Models,Journal of Human Resources.;26(1):107–137.

Currie, J., Madrian, B.C. (1999) Health, health insurance and the labour market, Handbook of Labour Economics, Vol. 3, Ashenfelter, O., Card D. (eds.). Elsevier: Amsterdam.

Datta Gupta, Nicolai Kristensen and Dario Pozzoli (2010) External validation of the use of vignettes in cross-country health studies, Economic Modeling 27 (2010) 854–865.

Dixon-Mueller, R., & Germain, A. (2007). Fertility regulation and reproductive health in the Millennium Development Goals: the search for a perfect indicator. Journal Information, 97(1).

Escobal, J., & Laszlo, S. (2008) Measurement Error in Access to Markets, Oxford bulletin of economics and statistics, 70(2), 209-243.

Etile, F and Carine Milcent (2006) Income-related reporting heterogeneity in self assessed health: evidence from France, Health Economics, Vol. 15, pp 965-981.

Gerdtham, U-G., Johannesson, M. (2001) The relationship between happiness, health, and socio-economic factors: Results based on Swedish micro data, Journal of Socio-Economics 30, 553-557.

Grol-Prokopczyk, H., Freese, J., & Hauser, R. M. (2011) Using anchoring vignettes to assess group differences in general self-rated health, Journal of health and social behavior, 52(2), 246-261.

Gwatkin (2000)Health inequalities and the health of the poor: What do we know? What can we do? Bulletin of the World Health Organization, vol.78.

Jones, A and Angel Nicholas (2002) The importance of individual heterogeneity in the decomposition of measures of socioeconomic inequality in health : an approach based on quantile regression, Ecuity II Project.

Johnston, D. W., Propper, C., & Shields, M. A. (2009). Comparing subjective and objective measures of health: Evidence from hypertension for the income/health gradient, Journal of Health Economics, 28(3), 540-552.

Jürges, H. (2007) True Health vs Response Styles: Exploring Cross-Country Differences in Self-Reported Health, Health Economics, 16(2), 163-178.

Kakwani N, Wagstaff, A., and E. van Doorslaer (1997)Socioeconomic inequalities in health: Measurement, computation, and statistical inference, Journal of Econometrics 77,pp 87-103.

Kapteyn, A., Smith, J.P., van Soest, A., (2007) Vignettes and self-reports of work disability in the United States and the Netherlands, American Economic Review 97 (1), 461–473.

Kerkhofs, M.K.M., Lindeboom, M., (1995) Subjective health measurements and state dependent reporting errors, Health Economics 4, 221–235

King, G.A., Murray, C.J.L., Salomon, J.A., Tandon, A., (2004) Enhancing the validity and cross-cultural comparability of measurement in survey research, American Political Science Review 98 (1), 191–207.

Krause, N. M., & Jay, G. M. (1994) What do global self-rated health items measure? Medical care, 930-942.

Lindeboom, M. and E. van Doorslaer (2004) Cut-point shift and index shift in self reported health, Journal of Health Economics 23 (6), 1083–1099.

Mishra, S. (2004). Public health scenario in India. India development report, 5, 62-83.

Murray, C.J.L., A. Tandon, J. Salomon, C.D. Mathers, and R. Sadana (2001) “Cross-Population Comparability of Evidence for Health Policy,” Global Programme on Evidence for Health Policy Discussion Paper, Geneva: World Health Organization.

Rohrer, J. E. (2009). Use of published self-rated health-impact studies in community health needs assessment, Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, 15(4), 363-366.

Schultz, T. P., and A. Tansel, (1997) “Wage and labor supply effects of illness in Cote d Ivoire and Ghana:instrumental variable estimates for days disabled”, Journal of Development Economics, 53 (2): 251-286.

Schultz, T. (2005) Productive benefits of health: Evidence from low-income countries.

Schultz, T. P., & Strauss, J. (Eds.). (2008) Handbook of development economics (Vol. 4). North Holland.

Sen, A.(1993) Positional objectivity, Philosophy & public affairs 22.2: 126-145.

Sen, A. (2002) Health: Perception versus observation: Self reported morbidity has severe limitations and can be extremely misleading,BMJ: British Medical Journal, 324(7342), 860.

Strauss, J., & Thomas, D. (2007) Health over the life course, Handbook of development economics, 4, 3375-3474.

Strauss, J. and D. Thomas (1996) Measurement and mismeasurement of social indicators, American Economic Review, 86.2:30-34.

Strauss, J., & Thomas, D. (1998) Health, nutrition, and economic development,Journal of economic literature, 36(2), 766-817.

Thomas, D. and J. Strauss (1997) Health, wealth and wages of men and women in urban Brazil, Journal of Econometrics , 77: 159-185.

Thomas, Duncan, and Elizabeth Frankenberg (2002) The measurement and interpretation of health in social surveys, Measurement of the global burden of disease: 387-420.

Van Doorslaer, E and A. M. Jones (2002) Inequalities in self-reported health ; validation of a new approach to measurement, Journal of Health Economics ,pp 61-87.

van Soest Arthur, Delaney Liam, Harmon Colm, Kapteyn Arie, Smith James. (2011) Validating the use of anchoring vignettes for the correction of response scale differences in subjective questions, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series. 3. A 174; pp. 575–595.

Wagstaff, A., Eddy van Doorslaer and Naoko Watanabe (2003) On decomposing the causes of health sector inequalities with an application to malnutrition inequalities in Vietnam, Journal of Econometrics 77,pp 207-223.