Should samples be weighted to decrease selection bias in online surveys during the COVID-19 pandemic? Data from seven datasets.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Online surveys have triggered a heated debate regarding their scientific validity. Many authors have adopted weighting methods to enhance the quality of online survey findings, while others did not find an advantage for this method. This work aims to compare weighted and unweighted association measures after adjustment over potential confounding, taking into account dataset properties such as the initial gap between the population and the selected sample, the sample size, and the variable types.

Methods

This study assessed seven datasets collected between 2019 and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic through online cross-sectional surveys using the snowball sampling technique. Weighting methods were applied to adjust the online sample over sociodemographic features o

SUBMITTER: Haddad C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8898325 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature