Patterns of item nonresponse behaviour to survey questionnaires are systematic and associated with genetic loci.

ABSTRACT: Response to survey questionnaires is vital for social and behavioural research, and most analyses assume full and accurate response by participants. However, nonresponse is common and impedes proper interpretation and generalizability of results. We examined item nonresponse behaviour across 109 questionnaire items in the UK Biobank (N = 360,628). Phenotypic factor scores for two participant-selected nonresponse answers, 'Prefer not to answer' (PNA) and 'I don't know' (IDK), each predicted participant nonresponse in follow-up surveys (incremental pseudo-R² = 0.056), even when controlling for education and self-reported health (incremental pseudo-R² = 0.046). After performing genome-wide association studies of our factors, PNA and IDK were highly genetically correlated

SUBMITTER: Mignogna G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10444625 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature