Abstract
BackgroundThis paper proposes and pilots a repeated random sampling method to promote the likelihood of collecting drinking data equally representative of the behavior of university students at all times through the academic year.MethodsFrom October, 2016, to May, 2017, random samples of 1350 students were selected from the 39,155 undergraduate students enrolled in the fall semester at University of Houston. These students were sent an email inviting them to complete an online survey (entered into a weekly draw for a $50 gift certificate if responded).ResultsThe response rate was low (6%). Among participants who reported drinking in the last week, there was a variation as expected in the amount of drinking observed depending on the time of year (e.g., during exams).ConclusionsWhile the sampling methods show promise, procedures would need to be implemented to substantially increase response rates before the proposed methods could be seen as an advantage over existing survey sampling procedures.
Highlights
This paper proposes and pilots a repeated random sampling method to promote the likelihood of collecting drinking data representative of the behavior of university students at all times through the academic year
While some surveys employ sampling methodology that allow for the assessment of variations in consumption at different times during the year [8], the majority of surveys have not focused on time-specific issues relevant to alcohol consumption, such as season, or specific calendar-related heavy drinking events
Random samples of 1305 potential participants were selected weekly and were sent a link asking them to participate in a student life survey
Summary
This paper proposes and pilots a repeated random sampling method to promote the likelihood of collecting drinking data representative of the behavior of university students at all times through the academic year. When epidemiological survey data has been used to track calendar-specific variations in drinking (e.g., Christmas or New Year) [9], the results, while indicative of variations in consumption, suffer from the limitation that the survey sampling methodology does not allow for confidence regarding whether the drinking data produced is representative on each calendar date. This is because the survey sampling frame was generated at one (or, at most, several time-points) and attempts were made to contact participants over an extended period of time. It is important to note that, as calendar-related heavy drinking is not the purpose of these surveys, the lack of information on this topic in these surveys is not a weakness—just a fact relating to the differing purpose associated with their data collection
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