Journal List > J Korean Acad Nurs > v.42(1) > 1002828

Lim and Park: Statistical Methods to Control Response Bias in Nursing Activity Surveys

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study was to compare statistical methods to control response bias in nursing activity surveys.

Methods

Data were collected at a medical unit of a general hospital. The number of nursing activities and consumed activity time were measured using self-report questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used to identify general characteristics of the units. Average, Z-standardization, gamma regression, finite mixture model, and stochastic frontier model were adopted to estimate true activity time controlling for response bias.

Results

The nursing activity time data were highly skewed and had non-normal distributions. Among the 4 different methods, only gamma regression and stochastic frontier model controlled response bias effectively and the estimated total nursing activity time did not exceeded total work time. However, in gamma regression, estimated total nursing activity time was too small to use in real clinical settings. Thus stochastic frontier model was the most appropriate method to control response bias when compared with the other methods.

Conclusion

According to these results, we recommend the use of a stochastic frontier model to estimate true nursing activity time when using self-report surveys.

Figures and Tables

Table 1
Time per Nursing Activity according to Time Estimation Methods
jkan-42-48-i001

3SDM=3 Standard deviation method; GGM=Generalized gamma model; FMM=Finite mixture model; SFM=Stochastic frontier model;

*(Measured working time)-147,840; (Measured working time)/147,840×100.

Notes

This work was supported by INHA UNIVERSITY Research Grant.

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