Random Digit Research Articles

Characteristics of the Washington cannabis market from 2014 to 2016

BackgroundThe state of Washington legalized cannabis for adult use in 2012 and retail stores began to open in 2014. While details of the legal market have been tracked by the state, the total market for cannabis and characteristics of purchasers can only be identified through surveys.MethodsSix cross-sectional samples of the Privatization of Spirits in Washington (PSW) surveys were collected between January 2014 and October 2016 with two in each year. Random digit dial procedures were used to recruit a sample aged 18 and older, with 40% of cases from mobile phones. A total of 5492 respondents participated. Analyses of the population-weighted sample utilized purchasing amounts and frequencies, use frequency and related measures to estimate total and mean amounts and expenditures. Sensitivity analyses were conducted for key assumptions.ResultsThe market for cannabis flower is estimated to have increased from 158 metric tons and $1.23 billion in 2014 to 222 metric tons and $1.7 billion in 2016, with little change from 2014 to 2015. Purchases from legal sources, retail and dispensaries, were estimated at 69% of the total market. Daily or near daily (DND) users accounted for about 83% of sales in 2014, rising to 91% in 2016. The prevalence of past year use rose substantially from 25% in 2014 to 32% in 2016, with DND use rising from 10.2 to 11.3%. Average purchase amounts for DND users rose from 291 g in 2014 to 374 g in 2016, while mean amounts among non-DND users declined from 78 to 28.6 g.ConclusionsThe expansion of retail cannabis stores in Washington appears to have led to increased market size in 2016 with all of the increase attributed to DND users. Frequent users may be important to consider in legalization evaluations.

COVID-19 pandemic in Saint Petersburg, Russia: Combining population-based serological study and surveillance data.

The COVID-19 pandemic in Russia has already resulted in 500,000 excess deaths, with more than 5.6 million cases registered officially by July 2021. Surveillance based on case reporting has become the core pandemic monitoring method in the country and globally. However, population-based seroprevalence studies may provide an unbiased estimate of the actual disease spread and, in combination with multiple surveillance tools, help to define the pandemic course. This study summarises results from four consecutive serological surveys conducted between May 2020 and April 2021 at St. Petersburg, Russia and combines them with other SARS-CoV-2 surveillance data. We conducted four serological surveys of two random samples (May-June, July-August, October-December 2020, and February-April 2021) from adults residing in St. Petersburg recruited with the random digit dialing (RDD), accompanied by a telephone interview to collect information on both individuals who accepted and declined the invitation for testing and account for non-response. We have used enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay CoronaPass total antibodies test (Genetico, Moscow, Russia) to report seroprevalence. We corrected the estimates for non-response using the bivariate probit model and also accounted the test performance characteristics, obtained from independent assay evaluation. In addition, we have summarised the official registered cases statistics, the number of hospitalised patients, the number of COVID-19 deaths, excess deaths, tests performed, data from the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC) surveillance, the vaccination uptake, and St. Petersburg search and mobility trends. The infection fatality ratios (IFR) have been calculated using the Bayesian evidence synthesis model. After calling 113,017 random mobile phones we have reached 14,118 individuals who responded to computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) and 2,413 provided blood samples at least once through the seroprevalence study. The adjusted seroprevalence in May-June, 2020 was 9.7% (95%: 7.7-11.7), 13.3% (95% 9.9-16.6) in July-August, 2020, 22.9% (95%: 20.3-25.5) in October-December, 2021 and 43.9% (95%: 39.7-48.0) in February-April, 2021. History of any symptoms, history of COVID-19 tests, and non-smoking status were significant predictors for higher seroprevalence. Most individuals remained seropositive with a maximum 10 months follow-up. 92.7% (95% CI 87.9-95.7) of participants who have reported at least one vaccine dose were seropositive. Hospitalisation and COVID-19 death statistics and search terms trends reflected the pandemic course better than the official case count, especially during the spring 2020. SARS-CoV-2 circulation showed rather low genetic SARS-CoV-2 lineages diversity that increased in the spring 2021. Local VOC (AT.1) was spreading till April 2021, but B.1.617.2 substituted all other lineages by June 2021. The IFR based on the excess deaths was equal to 1.04 (95% CI 0.80-1.31) for the adult population and 0.86% (95% CI 0.66-1.08) for the entire population. Approximately one year after the COVID-19 pandemic about 45% of St. Petersburg, Russia residents contracted the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Combined with vaccination uptake of about 10% it was enough to slow the pandemic at the present level of all mitigation measures until the Delta VOC started to spread. Combination of several surveillance tools provides a comprehensive pandemic picture.

Time trends in social contacts before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: the CONNECT study

BackgroundSince the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries, including Canada, have adopted unprecedented physical distancing measures such as closure of schools and non-essential businesses, and restrictions on gatherings and household visits. We described time trends in social contacts for the pre-pandemic and pandemic periods in Quebec, Canada.MethodsCONNECT is a population-based study of social contacts conducted shortly before (2018/2019) and during the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2020 – February 2021), using the same methodology for both periods. We recruited participants by random digit dialing and collected data by self-administered web-based questionnaires. Questionnaires documented socio-demographic characteristics and social contacts for two assigned days. A contact was defined as a two-way conversation at a distance ≤ 2 m or as a physical contact, irrespective of masking. We used weighted generalized linear models with a Poisson distribution and robust variance (taking possible overdispersion into account) to compare the mean number of social contacts over time and by socio-demographic characteristics.ResultsA total of 1291 and 5516 Quebecers completed the study before and during the pandemic, respectively. Contacts significantly decreased from a mean of 8 contacts/day prior to the pandemic to 3 contacts/day during the spring 2020 lockdown. Contacts remained lower than the pre-COVID period thereafter (lowest = 3 contacts/day during the Christmas 2020/2021 holidays, highest = 5 in September 2020). Contacts at work, during leisure activities/in other locations, and at home with visitors showed the greatest decreases since the beginning of the pandemic. All sociodemographic subgroups showed significant decreases of contacts since the beginning of the pandemic. The mixing matrices illustrated the impact of public health measures (e.g. school closure, gathering restrictions) with fewer contacts between children/teenagers and fewer contacts outside of the three main diagonals of contacts between same-age partners/siblings and between children and their parents.ConclusionPhysical distancing measures in Quebec significantly decreased social contacts, which most likely mitigated the spread of COVID-19.

Time trends in social contacts of individuals according to comorbidity and vaccination status, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundAs we are confronted with more transmissible/severe variants with immune escape and the waning of vaccine efficacy, it is particularly relevant to understand how the social contacts of individuals at greater risk of COVID-19 complications evolved over time. We described time trends in social contacts of individuals according to comorbidity and vaccination status before and during the first three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec, Canada.MethodsWe used data from CONNECT, a repeated cross-sectional population-based survey of social contacts conducted before (2018/2019) and during the pandemic (April 2020 to July 2021). We recruited non-institutionalized adults from Quebec, Canada, by random digit dialling. We used a self-administered web-based questionnaire to measure the number of social contacts of participants (two-way conversation at a distance ≤2 m or a physical contact, irrespective of masking). We compared the mean number of contacts/day according to the comorbidity status of participants (pre-existing medical conditions with symptoms/medication in the past 12 months) and 1-dose vaccination status during the third wave. All analyses were performed using weighted generalized linear models with a Poisson distribution and robust variance.ResultsA total of 1441 and 5185 participants with and without comorbidities, respectively, were included in the analyses. Contacts significantly decreased from a mean of 6.1 (95%CI 4.9–7.3) before the pandemic to 3.2 (95%CI 2.5–3.9) during the first wave among individuals with comorbidities and from 8.1 (95%CI 7.3–9.0) to 2.7 (95%CI 2.2–3.2) among individuals without comorbidities. Individuals with comorbidities maintained fewer contacts than those without comorbidities in the second wave, with a significant difference before the Christmas 2020/2021 holidays (2.9 (95%CI 2.5–3.2) vs 3.9 (95%CI 3.5–4.3); P<0.001). During the third wave, contacts were similar for individuals with (4.1, 95%CI 3.4–4.7) and without comorbidities (4.5, 95%CI 4.1–4.9; P=0.27). This could be partly explained by individuals with comorbidities vaccinated with their first dose who increased their contacts to the level of those without comorbidities.ConclusionsIt will be important to closely monitor COVID-19-related outcomes and social contacts by comorbidity and vaccination status to inform targeted or population-based interventions (e.g., booster doses of the vaccine).

Predictors of Dual E-Cigarette and Cigarette Use.

To compare prevalence of e-cigarette and cigarette use and to determine predictors of dual use. Using a countywide random digit dial telephone health survey conducted during January 2018 to March 2019, we analyzed data from a random sample of 6966 adults. Bivariate analyses described vaping, cigarette use, and sociodemographics. A multivariable logistic regression model examined dual use. Young adults 18 to 24 years of age had the highest prevalence of e-cigarette-only use (11.5%), the second-highest prevalence of dual use (3.9%), and the lowest prevalence of cigarette-only use (5.8%). Males were more likely than females to use e-cigarettes (5.1% vs 2.7%), traditional cigarettes (11.1% vs 6.9%), or be dual users (3.6% vs 1.1%). Of those who used e-cigarettes or both, approximately half had also used marijuana in the past 30 days. E-cigarette use among young adults is concerning because it could lead to eventual dual use of e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes.

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Experiences of Discrimination Among Black Adults.

Early in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Black adults consistently reported more hesitancy than White adults, but few studies have examined variation in hesitancy among Black adults or its associations with racial discrimination. Data were collected from Black Arkansas residents age 18 and older (n = 350) between July 12th and July 30th, 2021, as part of a larger survey of Arkansans (N = 1500). Participants were recruited through random digit dialing of both landline and cell phones, with oversampling of Black and Hispanic residents. Respondents reported COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, sociodemographic information, influenza vaccination history, pandemic-related experiences, and experiences of racial discrimination. Almost half (48.9%) of Black adults in Arkansas were not hesitant towards COVID-19 vaccines, while the remainder reported some level of hesitancy. Nearly a quarter were very hesitant (22.4%), while fewer reported being somewhat (14.0%) and a little (14.7%) hesitant. Using an ordered logistic regression with partial proportional odds, we find odds of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy decreased as age and influenza vaccination increased. Odds of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy were 1.70 times greater for Black adults who experienced the death of a close friend/family member due to COVID-19 and 2.61 times greater for individuals reporting discrimination with police or in the courts. Within-group analysis revealed nearly half of Black adults did not report any COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and heterogeneity among those who were hesitant. Findings suggest there may be an important link between racial discrimination in the criminal justice system and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Black adults.

Moving towards a single-frame cell phone design in random digit dialing surveys: considerations from a French general population health survey

BackgroundOver the last two decades, telephone surveys based on random digit dialing have developed considerably. At the same time, however, the proportion of the population with a cell phone has increased, whereas landline frame coverage has declined, thus raising the possibility of discontinuing landline phone surveys. This paper aims to assess the impact of using a single-frame (SF) cell phone design instead of a dual-frame (DF) design with landlines and cell phones in the context of repeated health surveillance surveys in the general population. We analyze data from a random digit dialing health survey of the French population and assess differences between the DF and the counterfactual SF design that excludes the landline phone sample from the DF design. We evaluate the quality of the two survey designs in terms of survey productivity, response rates, representativeness, balancing of external covariates, and prevalence estimates of key health behavior indicators.ResultsOur results show that a SF cell phone survey has several advantages over a combined DF landline and cell phone survey. Cell numbers require fewer call attempts to complete an interview, leading to a substantial reduction in the mean data collection duration and weight dispersion. The global representativeness of the SF design was slightly better than its DF counterpart, although the elderly were underrepresented. After calibration, differences in health behavior estimates were small for the seven health indicators analyzed.ConclusionsSwitching from a DF random telephone survey to a SF cell phone design has a number of practical advantages and would have a minimal impact on general population health surveys for monitoring health behavior at the population level. However, the different aspects of the survey quality had to be studied to make a decision. Further studies are needed to explore the scope of possibilities.

Complete home smoking ban survey analysis: an opportunity to improve health equity among sexual minority adults in California, USA

BackgroundIncreasing the proportion of adults living in smoke-free homes is a US Healthy People 2020 objective. Complete home smoking bans are associated with higher odds of smoking cessation attempts and cessation duration. Sexual minority adults have disproportionality higher rates of smoking. This study investigates correlates of having a complete home smoking ban among sexual minority adults in California.MethodsSecondary data analyses of the California Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (CA BRFSS), 2014–2016. The CA BRFSS telephone survey of adults was conducted in English and Spanish and used random digit dial for landline and cell numbers. Weighted descriptives were stratified by sexual orientation and biological sex. Weighted bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses included only sexual minorities (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual) and were analyzed as a group and separately by biological sex to account for intragroup variances. The final weighted total of sexual minority adults (N = 359,236) included sexual minority adult females (N = 163,490) and sexual minority adult males (N = 195,746).ResultsSexual minority adults in California had a lower prevalence of complete home smoking bans (Female 76.2%; Male 75.7%), higher prevalence of current cigarette smoking (Female 23.3%; Male 17.4%) and of e-cigarette use (Female 5.8%; Male 6.4%) than their straight counterparts. Sexual minorities that smoke everyday (Female Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) 0.26, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.11–0.63; Male AOR 0.24, 95% CI 0.01–0.56) or some days (Female AOR 0.28, 95% CI 0.09–0.90) had lower adjusted odds of having a complete home smoking ban compared to those who never smoked.ConclusionsSmoking everyday was the only consistent predictor of not having a complete home smoking ban among sexual minority adults. Focused efforts to increase prevalence of complete home smoking bans should address smoking status to improve health equity among sexual minority adults.

Parents' and Guardians' Intentions to Vaccinate Children against COVID-19.

A cross-sectional survey design was used to assess Arkansas parents’/guardians’ intentions to vaccinate their child against COVID-19. Parents/guardians whose oldest child was age 0–11 years (n = 171) or 12–17 years (n = 198) were recruited between 12 July and 30 July 2021 through random digit dialing. Among parents/guardians with an age-eligible child, age 12–17, 19% reported their child had been vaccinated, and 34% reported they would have their child vaccinated right away. Among parents/guardians with a child aged 0–11, 33% of parents/guardians reported they would have their child vaccinated right away. Twenty-eight percent (28%) of parents/guardians whose oldest child was 12–17 and 26% of parents/guardians whose oldest child was 0–11 reported they would only have their child vaccinated if their school required it; otherwise, they would definitely not vaccinate them. For both groups, parents’/guardians’ education, COVID-19 vaccination status, and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy were significantly associated with intentions to vaccinate their child. More than a third of parents/guardians whose child was eligible for vaccination at the time of the survey reported they intended to have them vaccinated right away; however, they had not vaccinated their child more than two months after approval. This finding raises questions about the remaining barriers constraining some parents/guardians from vaccinating their child.

Understanding Corruption with Perceived Corruption: The Understudied Effect of Corruption Tolerance

Corruption diminishes the legitimacy of a government, and the extent of corruption perceived by the public reflects how transparent a government is to some extent. However, perceived corruption can vary across individuals because perceived corruption, which is a perception-based measurement of corruption, is sample-dependent and affected by culture, personal ethical standards, and specific contexts. Tolerance for corruption, which refers to an individual’s willingness to tolerate unethical behaviors, is underdeveloped and understudied in the literature. With data collected with Random Digit Dialing technique in Taipei Taiwan, we conducted a parallel analysis to validate the scales to measure tolerance for corruption and examined its effect on perceived corruption controlling for institutional trust, satisfaction with government performance, and demographical variables. This study found partial evidence that tolerance for corruption with contextually fit items has a significant negative effect on perceived corruption with the survey data from Taipei, Taiwan, holding all the other variables constant. This result indicates that the higher the tolerance for corruption, the lower the perceived corruption. However, measuring tolerance for corruption is contextual. Scales for this construct should be further explored across cultures.

Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Older New York City Residents Living at Home.

To describe effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on older adults living in non-institutionalized settings in New York City (NYC) we used random digit dial sampling of landlines phones to sample then interview residents 70 years and older in NYC from December 2020–March 2021. Socio-demographic, health characteristics and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were solicited. Of 676 respondents, the average age was 78, 60% were female, and 63% had ever been tested for SARS-CoV-2, with 12% testing positive. Sixty-three percent of respondents knew someone who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 51% reported knowing at least one person who had died from COVID-19. Eight percent of respondents reported sometimes or often not having enough to eat, with 31% receiving food from a food pantry program. Significantly more Latinx respondents (24%) reported a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, whereas 17% of those of another race, 8% of white, and 7% of Black respondents had a positive COVID-19 test (p < 0.01). Forty-three percent of Black and 43% of Latinx respondents reported using a food pantry during COVID-19 pandemic, compared to 35% of respondents of another race and ethnicity and 18% of whites (p < 0.01). Twenty-nine percent of Latinx respondents screened for depression compared to 15% among all other races (p = 0.04). The COVID-19 pandemic has substantial health and social effects on older New Yorkers living in community settings, and experiences differed by race and ethnicity. Beyond older adults in congregate settings, those living at home have experienced wide-ranging effects of COVID-19, necessitating tailored interventions.

Lack of Maternal Social Capital Increases the Likelihood of Harsh Parenting.

Does low maternal social capital increase the likelihood of parents using harsh parenting behaviors? We analyzed random digit dial telephone survey data from 661 female primary caregivers across Colorado. Positive reports of the use of either physically or psychologically harsh parenting methods were classified as harsh parenting. Absence of social capital was assessed within the family and the community; lack of social capital within the family was measured in terms of an absence of support from a partner and an additional caregiver. Absence of social capital within the community was measured as lack of interpersonal resources from neighbors and religious activities. Nearly 30% admitted to one or more physically harsh parenting behaviors in the prior year, and 85.8% reported at least one psychologically harsh parenting behavior. Lower levels of neighborhood connectedness were associated with physically harsh parenting (odds ratio = 1.50). Conflict between partners (odd ratio = 2.50) and the absence of an additional caregiver (odds ratio = 1.88) increased psychologically harsh parenting. One practical implication is that mental health and medical providers should help new parents value, access, or develop social networks within the community to prevent children from experiencing harsh parenting.

Are any samples representative or unbiased? reply to Pickering and Blaszczynski

ABSTRACT Pickering and Blaszczynski’s paper (2021) claims that the problem gambling rate is inflated in paid online convenience and crowdsourced samples. However, there is a methodological flaw in their findings: they combined problem gambling rates from samples that are specific by design (e.g. at-least monthly sports bettors), and compared them to a problem gambling prevalence estimate from the general population. Pickering and Blaszczynski conflate three constructs: representativeness, bias and data quality. Data quality can be optimized through protections and checks, but these do not necessarily make samples more representative, or less biased. Many of the biases present in paid online convenience samples (e.g. self-selection biases) also apply to the gold standard of random digit dial telephone surveys, which is manifestly evident in very low response rates. These biases are also present in industry-recruited and venue-recruited samples, as well as samples of university students and treatment-seeking clients. Paid online convenience samples also have clear benefits. For example, it is possible to obtain large samples of very specific subgroups. Online surveys may reduce bias associated with self-reporting potentially stigmatizing conditions, like problem gambling. It is important not to discount research simply because it uses a paid online convenience or crowdsourced sample.

Developing the Florida Academic Cancer Center Alliance Health Disparities Common Measure: The Florida Health and Ancestry Survey

PurposeOur specific aim was to develop and assess the consensus-based validity of common measures for understanding health behaviors and ancestry in Florida’s population subgroups and establish the feasibility of wide-scale implementation of the measures and biospecimen collection within three cancer centers’ catchment areas.MethodsUsing the National Cancer Institute’s Grid-Enabled Measures web-based platform and an iterative process, we developed the Florida Health and Ancestry Survey (FHAS). We then used three sampling approaches to implement the FHAS: community-engaged, panel respondent, and random digit dialing (RDD). We asked a subset of participants to provide a saliva sample for future validation of subjective ancestry report with DNA-derived ancestry markers.ResultsThis process supported the FHAS content validity. As an indicator of feasibility, the goals for completed surveys by sampling approach were met for two of the three cancer centers, yielding a total of 1438 completed surveys. The RDD approach produced the most representative sample. The panel sampling approach produced inadequate representation of older individuals and males. The community-engaged approach along with social media recruitment produced extreme underrepresentation only for males. Two of the cancer centers mailed biospecimen kits, whereas one did not due to resource constraints. On average, the community engaged approach was more productive in obtaining returned biospecimen samples (80%) than the panel approach (48%).ConclusionsWe successfully developed and implemented the FHAS as a common measure to show its feasibility for understanding cancer health disparities in Florida. We identified sampling approach successes and challenges to obtaining biospecimens for ancestry research.

Healthcare access as an important element for the EU's socioeconomic development: Greece's residents' opinions during the COVID-19 pandemic

&lt;abstract&gt; &lt;p&gt;The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a severe impact on global socio-economic development and healthcare access. Considering the link between the two, the objective of this study was to investigate to what extent Greece's residents consider that access to healthcare is an important element for the European's Union (EU) socioeconomic development. The study used data from the Eurobarometer 94.2. Interviews were conducted online. Respondents were recruited by telephone via a dual-frame random digit dialing (RDD) sample design. The sample was supplemented with a non-probabilistic sample randomly drawn from Kantar's LifePoints panel. The sample size was n = 1002. A logistic model was fitted using the respondents' opinions regarding the direction the EU is heading in as a dependent variable. As potential predictors, we used respondents' opinions regarding the importance of access to healthcare for the EU's socioeconomic development, the extent to which more (or less) decision-making should take place at the European level for dealing with health issues, the index of political interest and several sociodemographic characteristics. According to the analysis, those that mentioned healthcare access as an important element for the EU's socioeconomic development were more likely to consider that the EU is heading in the wrong direction. The results of this study may indicate feelings of discomfort regarding the decline of society in the European Union due to disruptions to healthcare access and the contraction of national economies caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/abstract&gt;

Neural Acoustic-Phonetic Approach for Speaker Verification With Phonetic Attention Mask

Traditional acoustic-phonetic approach makes use of both spectral and phonetic information when comparing the voice of speakers. While phonetic units are not equally informative, the phonetic context of speech plays an important role in speaker verification (SV). In this paper, we propose a neural acoustic-phonetic approach that learns to dynamically assign differentiated weights to spectral features for SV. Such differentiated weights form a phonetic attention mask (PAM). The neural acoustic-phonetic framework consists of two training pipelines, one for SV and another for speech recognition. Through the PAM, we leverage the phonetic information for SV. We evaluate the proposed neural acoustic-phonetic framework on the RSR2015 database Part III corpus, that consists of random digit strings. We show that the proposed framework with PAM consistently outperforms baseline with an equal error rate reduction of 13.45% and 10.20% for female and male data, respectively.

The Use of Multimode Data Collection in Random Digit Dialing Cell Phone Surveys for Young Adults: Feasibility Study.

BackgroundYoung adults’ early adoption of new cell phone technologies have created challenges to survey recruitment but offer opportunities to combine random digit dialing (RDD) sampling with web mode data collection. The National Young Adult Health Survey was designed to test the feasibility of this methodology.ObjectiveIn this study, we compared response rates across the telephone mode and web mode, assessed sample representativeness, examined design effects (DEFFs), and compared cigarette smoking prevalence to a gold standard national survey.MethodsWe conducted a survey experiment where the sampling frame was randomized to single-mode telephone interviews, telephone-to-web sequential mixed mode, and single-mode web survey. A total of 831 respondents aged 18 to 34 years were recruited via RDD at baseline. A soft launch was conducted prior to main launch. We compared the web mode to the telephone modes (ie, single-mode and mixed mode) at wave 1 based on the American Association for Public Opinion Research response rate 3 for screening and extended surveys. Base-weighted demographic distributions were compared to the American Community Survey. The sample was calibrated to the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey to calculate DEFFs and to compare cigarette smoking prevalence to the National Health Interview Survey. Prevalence estimates are estimated with sampling weights and are presented with unweighted sample sizes. Consistency of estimates was judged by 95% CI.ResultsThe American Association for Public Opinion Research response rate 3 was higher in the telephone mode than in the web mode (24% and 30% vs 6.1% and 12.5%, for soft launch and main launch, respectively), which was reflected in response rate 3 for screening and extended surveys. During the soft launch, the extended survey and eligibility rate were low for respondents pushed to the web mode. To boost productivity and survey completes for the web condition, the main launch used cell phone numbers from the sampling frame where the sample vendor matched the number to auxiliary data, which suggested that the number likely belonged to an adult in the target age range. This increased the eligibility rate, but the screener response rate was lower. Compared to population distribution from the US Census Bureau, the telephone mode overrepresented men (57.1% [unweighted n=412] vs 50.9%) and those enrolled in college (40.3% [unweighted n=269] vs 23.8%); it also underrepresented those with a Bachelor of Arts or Science (34.4% [unweighted n=239] vs 55%). The web mode overrepresented White, non-Latinos (70.7% [unweighted n=90] vs 54.4%) and those with some college education (30.4% [unweighted n=40] vs 7.6%); it also underrepresented Latinos (13.6% [unweighted n=20] vs 20.7%) and those with a high school or General Education Development diploma (15.3% [unweighted n=20] vs 29.3%). The DEFF measure was 1.28 (subpopulation range 0.96-1.93). The National Young Adult Health Survey cigarette smoking prevalence was consistent with the National Health Interview Survey overall (15%, CI 12.4%-18% [unweighted 149/831] vs 13.5%, CI 12.3%-14.7% [unweighted 823/5552]), with notable deviation among 18- to 24-year-olds (15.6%, CI 11.3%-22.2% [unweighted 51/337] vs 8.7%, CI 7.1%-10.6% [unweighted 167/1647]), and those with education levels lower than Bachelor of Arts or Science (24%, CI 19.3%-29.4% [unweighted 123/524] vs 17.1%, CI 15.6%-18.7% [unweighted 690/3493]).ConclusionsRDD sampling for a web survey is not feasible for young adults due to its low response rate. However, combining this methodology with RDD telephone surveys may have a great potential for including media and collecting autophotographic data in population surveys.

The prevalence of tinnitus in the Australian working population

To estimate the prevalence of tinnitus in Australian working people; to identify occupational and demographic factors associated with tinnitus. Cross-sectional national telephone survey of self-reported frequency and duration of tinnitus. Australian Workplace Exposure Survey (AWES) - Hearing; 4970 currently employed people aged 18-64 years, recruited by random digit dialling, representative by sex of the workforce population, 7 June 2016 - 20 March 2017. Prevalence of occasional, intermittent, and constant tinnitus, and of any tinnitus, by occupational group, sex, and other demographic characteristics; estimated numbers of working people with constant or any tinnitus, by occupational group and sex. Of 4970 respondents, 1317 reported experiencing tinnitus (26.5%): 713 people had occasional tinnitus (14.3%), 259 intermittent tinnitus (5.2%), and 345 constant tinnitus (6.9%). The sample prevalence of constant tinnitus was greater among men (7.5%; 95% CI, 6.2-8.7%) than women (3.3%; 95% CI, 2.3-4.3%), and was higher in older age groups. After rake weighting our survey responses, we estimated that 2.4 million workers (24.8%; 95% CI, 23.2-26.4%) experience tinnitus, including 529343 with constant tinnitus (5.5%; 95% CI, 4.6-6.3%). The estimated prevalence of constant tinnitus was highest for automotive workers (16.7%; 95% CI, 9.5-23.8%), drivers (13.0%; 95% CI, 7.3-18.6%), farmers (12.1%; 95% CI, 5.9-18.4%), and workers in other trades (10.4%; 95% CI, 4.6-16.2%). The prevalence of tinnitus in the Australian workforce is high, particularly in certain occupations. Workplace practices and conditions that increase the risk of tinnitus should be examined, and targeted workplace prevention strategies developed.

Trends of depression and anxiety during massive civil unrest and COVID-19 in Hong Kong, 2019–2020

Both COVID-19 and unrest are posing a significant threat to population mental health across the globe. This study examined trends of probable depression and anxiety during a time of civil unrest and concurrent COVID-19 in Hong Kong. Four random digit dialing telephone surveys were conducted in July 2019 (n = 1112), February–March 2020 (n = 2003), April–May 2020 (n = 2008), and July–August 2020 (n = 2034). The prevalence of probable depression increased from 25.7% (95% CI: 23.2–28.3) in July 2019 to 28.2% (95% CI: 26.2–30.1) in February–March 2020, and then decreased to 15.3% (95% CI: 14.0–17.0) in April–May 2020 and 13.7% (95% CI: 12.2–15.2) in July–August 2020. The prevalence of probable anxiety was 19.2% (95% CI: 17.5–20.9) in February–March 2020 and then stabilized in April–May 2020 and July–August 2020 (14.1%, 95% CI: 12.0–15.8). Probable depression and anxiety were more prevalent among persons with high relative to low daily routine disruptions. Combined high unrest-COVID-19 stress was associated with probable depression and anxiety across all persons; high unrest stress alone was associated with probable mental disorders at high daily routine disruptions. Civil unrest and COVID-19 are jointly associated with depression and anxiety among Hong Kong citizens. While population mental health improved, daily routine disruptions is a risk factor of mental disorders at every time-point.

A Case-Control Study of Contextual Factors for SARS-CoV-2 Transmission.

Background: Knowledge on the settings and activities associated with a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission is essential to inform decision-making. We thus designed a case-control study to identify relevant settings for community transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Portugal.Methods: We evaluated 1,088 cases, identified through the national surveillance system, and 787 community controls, recruited using random digit dialing. Sociodemographic characteristics, individual protective measures, and activities or visited settings were obtained through telephone interview. We report sex-, age-, education-, and citizenship-adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI).Results: Household overcrowding (aOR = 1.47; 95% CI 1.14–1.91) and work in senior care (4.99; 1.30–33.08) increased while working remotely decreased the risk of infection (0.30; 0.22–0.42). Going to restaurants/other dining spaces (0.73; 0.59–0.91), grocery stores (0.44; 0.34–0.57) or hair salons (0.51; 0.39–0.66), or the use of public transportation did not present a higher risk of infection (0.98; 0.75–1.29), under existing mitigation strategies. Lower education ( ≤ 4 years vs. tertiary education: 1.79; 1.33–2.42) and no Portuguese citizenship (5.47; 3.43–9.22) were important risk factors.Conclusions: The utilization of public transportation, restaurants, and commercial spaces was not associated with increased risk of infection, under capacity restrictions, physical distancing, use of masks, and hygiene measures. Overcrowding, foreign citizenship, low education and working on-site were positively associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection.