Does Device or Connection Type Affect Health Preferences in Online Surveys?

Area of Science:

• Health economics
• Health services research
• Digital health

Background:

• Online surveys offer cost-effective and representative data collection for health preference studies.
• Mobile technology adoption is increasing, necessitating an evaluation of its impact on health preference data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of respondent device (cell phone, tablet, Mac, PC) and internet connection type on participation, response quality, and utility values in online health preference surveys.
• To determine if mobile technology use influences the reliability and representativeness of health preference data.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of two discrete choice experiments with 15,292 US general population members.
• Comparison of respondent characteristics, participation rates, response quality (completion times, dropout rates, logical inconsistencies), and EQ-5D-5L utility values based on device and internet connection.

Main Results:

• Mobile device users (cell phone, tablet) and cellular internet users showed longer completion times and higher dropout rates.
• Tablet users exhibited more logical inconsistencies; cellular internet users showed less preference consistency.
• Despite variability in participation and quality, EQ-5D-5L utility values were similar across devices and connection types.

Conclusions:

• Utilizing mobile devices and cellular connections for online surveys significantly enhances respondent diversity and sample representativeness.
• While participation and response quality metrics show variability, the core health utility values derived from these surveys remain largely unaffected.
• The findings support the use of diverse digital platforms for health preference data collection to achieve broader and more inclusive samples.