title: Systematic bias in self-reported annual household incomes among unpartnered elderly cardiac patients.
abstract: The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine whether specific patient characteristics were associated with not reporting individual incomes among elderly unpartnered cardiac patients. Two hundred forty-seven unpartnered patients (age, >/=65 years) who were admitted with coronary artery disease to one of five university medical centers were interviewed during their hospitalization. Their average age was 76 years (SD = 6.3 years, range = 65-101 years). Of the sample, approximately 34% were men, 92% were Caucasian, 19% had less than 12 years of education, and 55% had at least 12 years (but not more than 16 years) of education. Approximately 13% of the patients did not report their annual household income. In a logistic regression analysis, higher education and greater social and economic satisfaction were significantly related to refusal to self-report income after controlling for age and sex (p < .05). The interaction between education and sex was not significant in the model (p > .05). Our findings indicate that there was a potential systematic bias regarding self-reporting of annual household income. Thus, this systematic bias needs to be examined before performing a multivariate analysis that includes income as a covariate.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Nursing, University of California-San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. yoshimi.fukuoka@nursing.ucsf.edu
authors.forename: Yoshimi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukuoka
authors.forename: Sally H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Rankin
authors.forename: Diane L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Carroll
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015982:Bias; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006331:Heart Diseases; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D012923:Social Class