TABLE 1—
Response Rates Immediately Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic for US National and State Social and Health Surveys Designed to Be Representative of the Population: 2019–2022
| Response Rates, % | Absolute Difference in Response Rates, Percentage Points | Relative Difference in Response Rates vs 2019 | |||||
| Immediately Prepandemic | Pandemic Time 1 (2020) | Pandemic Time 2 (2021) | Time 1 vs Prepandemic | Time 2 vs Prepandemic | Time 1 vs Prepandemic | Time 2 vs Prepandemic | |
| US Census ACS (http://bit.ly/3ZDfyMM ) a | |||||||
| US housing units | 86.0 | 71.2 | 85.3 | −14.8 | −0.7 | 0.83 | 0.91 |
| US group quartersb | 90.9 | 47.2 | 74.8 | −43.7 | −16.1 | 0.52 | 0.82 |
| State housing unitsc | |||||||
| Median | 87.0 | 73.0 | 87.1 | −14.0 | 0.10 | 0.83 | 1.00 |
| Minimum | 75.4 | 63.1 | 75.9 | −12.3 | 0.10 | 0.84 | 1.00 |
| Maximum | 92.0 | 85.2 | 92.7 | −6.8 | 0.70 | 0.93 | 1.00 |
| State group quartersb,c | |||||||
| Median | 93.0 | 50.4 | 80.2 | −36.6 | −12.8 | 0.54 | 0.86 |
| Minimum | 65.3 | 28.9 | 35.5 | −36.4 | −29.8 | 0.49 | 0.54 |
| Maximum | 98.2 | 70.9 | 95.7 | −27.3 | −2.5 | 0.72 | 0.97 |
| US Current Population Survey (http://bit.ly/3FcDXAJ ) a | |||||||
| United States | 82.3 | 76.2 | 72.0 | −6.1 | −10.3 | 0.93 | 0.87 |
| US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Expenditure Surveys (http://bit.ly/3YBOPz1 ) a | |||||||
| Diary | 49.5 | 33.9 | NA | −15.6 | NA | 0.68 | NA |
| Interview | 52.2 | 45.8 | NA | −6.4 | NA | 0.88 | NA |
| US National Health Interview Survey (https://bit.ly/3J7gstZ ) a | |||||||
| Household | 60.0 | 42.7 | NA | −17.3 | NA | 0.71 | NA |
| Adult sample | 57.9 | 41.1 | NA | −16.8 | NA | 0.71 | NA |
| Child sample | 57.6 | 40.1 | NA | −17.5 | NA | 0.70 | NA |
| US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (http://bit.ly/3Yz6LtY ) a | |||||||
| Screener response | 85.3 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Interview | 49.6 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| Examination | 44.0 | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA | NA |
| BRFSS Survey (2019: https://bit.ly/40ijd2v; 2020: https://bit.ly/3LAxUK8; 2021: https://bit.ly/3Z2Ncur) | |||||||
| United States | |||||||
| Mean | 50.0 | 47.8 | 44.6 | −2.2 | −5.4 | 0.96 | 0.89 |
| Median | 49.4 | 47.9 | 44.0 | −1.5 | −5.4 | 0.97 | 0.89 |
| Minimum | 37.3 | 34.5 | 23.5 | −2.8 | −13.8 | 0.92 | 0.63 |
| Maximum | 73.1 | 67.2 | 60.5 | −5.9 | −12.6 | 0.92 | 0.83 |
Note. ACS = American Community Survey; BRFSS = Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; NA = not available. Relative times (immediately prepandemic, pandemic time 1, and pandemic time 2) vary by survey. See Table A (available as a supplement to the online version of this article at https://www.ajph.org) for full dates.
Concerns stated in the survey documentation regarding social differentials in response rates, including inability to correct for these differentials using conventional weighting approaches (see Table A for descriptions). Each of these surveys additionally reported changes in survey design in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (see Table A for descriptions).
Defined by the ACS report as “places where people live or stay in a group living arrangement that is owned or managed by an organization providing housing and/or services for the residents . . . such as college residence halls, residential treatment centers, skilled nursing facilities, group homes, military barracks, prisons, and worker dormitories” (http://bit.ly/3ZDfyMM).
For the state-level ACS response rates, states include 50 US states plus the District of Colombia and Puerto Rico.