The association between interviewer gender and responses to sensitive survey questions in a sample of Haitian women

ABSTRACT

Bias may be introduced in survey data collection when participants answer questions differently depending on interviewer gender. This could affect the validity of collected data, especially sensitive data. Using sexual behavior data collected in a 2017–2018 cross-sectional survey of Haitian women (n = 304), we evaluated the associations between interviewer-gender and three different outcomes: (1) question-specific response rates, (2) total number of non-responses, and (3) differences in reported answers. We observed higher item response rates for sensitive sexual behavior questions when the interviewer was female and more item non-responses (Don’t know/Refuse) when the interviewer was male. Among those who did respond, participants were more likely to report some sensitive sexual behaviors to women and others to men. We conclude that researchers should consider the sociocultural norms of the study population and the potential for interviewer gender bias in the planning and analysis phase of studies using self-reported data.

KEYWORDS:

• Interviewer-gender
• bias
• survey
• sexual behavior
• Haiti

Ethical approval

We obtained the ethical approval for this study’s protocol from the Indiana University’s Human Subjects Office (Protocol #1705661852).

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by a Project Development Team within the Indiana CTSI NIH/NCRR (Grant Numbers UL1TR001108, PDT 744). The Indiana University Vice Provost for Research through the Faculty Research Support Program also supported the project.

Notes on contributors

Sina Kianersi

Sina Kianersi is a third-year epidemiology PhD student at the Indiana University School of Public Health – Bloomington.

Maya Luetke

Maya Luetke is a third-year epidemiology PhD student at the Indiana University School of Public Health – Bloomington.

Reginal Jules

Reginal Jules is the Director of Social Impact Monitoring, Fonkoze Foundation.

Molly Rosenberg

Molly Rosenberg is an assistant professor at Indiana University School of Public Health – Bloomington