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Data
Weighting
Research is typically conducted to solve problems and/or to understand the opinions, behaviors, and perceptions of a particular group of people (county residents, consumers, parents, etc.) Without the ability to approach every individual in the population, researchers aim to collect responses from a representative sample of the population. Further, certain individuals are more likely to participate in research than others. For example, in surveys conducted via telephone, women are more likely than men to answer the phone, and therefore more likely to participate if the interviewer is only looking for responses from the first person willing to participate.
To remove as much bias as possible, and to allow research findings to be generalized from the sample to the population from which it was drawn, VIP Research and Evaluation employs both design weighting and raking, otherwise known as iterative disproportional fitting.
In telephone surveys, design weights help address bias that results from both (1) individuals having unequal probabilities of being selected, and (2) noncoverage and nonresponse bias that exists in all segments of the population. Utilizing design weights can help to adjust for these differences.
We use raking, as opposed to post-stratification weights, in order to be able to generalize sample results to the population. The advantage of raking over post-stratification weights lies in the fact that the former allows for the introduction of many known population characteristics, or demographic variables, simultaneously. For example, variables such as telephone source, detailed race/ethnicity, education level, marital status, age by gender, gender by race/ethnicity, age by race/ethnicity, renter/owner status, and county region/section can used to weight the sample to ensure the data is more representative of the population of the county from which it was drawn.
VIP will work with you to determine the most appropriate methods, sampling, and analyses necessary to meet your project goals.
