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Patterns of item nonresponse behaviour to survey questionnaires are systematic and associated with genetic loci

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  • Gianmarco Mignogna

    (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
    University of Helsinki
    University of Milano-Bicocca
    Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard)

  • Caitlin E. Carey

    (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
    Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
    Massachusetts General Hospital)

  • Robbee Wedow

    (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
    Purdue University
    Indiana University School of Medicine
    AnalytiXIN (Analytics Indiana))

  • Nikolas Baya

    (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
    Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard)

  • Mattia Cordioli

    (University of Helsinki)

  • Nicola Pirastu

    (University of Edinburgh
    Viale Rita Levi-Montalcini)

  • Rino Bellocco

    (University of Milano-Bicocca
    Karolinska Institutet)

  • Kathryn Fiuza Malerbi

    (Purdue University)

  • Michel G. Nivard

    (Vrije Universiteit
    Amsterdam Public Health
    Psychosis, Stress and Sleep)

  • Benjamin M. Neale

    (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
    Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
    Massachusetts General Hospital
    Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard)

  • Raymond K. Walters

    (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
    Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard)

  • Andrea Ganna

    (Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
    University of Helsinki
    Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard)

Abstract

Response to survey questionnaires is vital for social and behavioural research, and most analyses assume full and accurate response by participants. However, nonresponse is common and impedes proper interpretation and generalizability of results. We examined item nonresponse behaviour across 109 questionnaire items in the UK Biobank (N = 360,628). Phenotypic factor scores for two participant-selected nonresponse answers, ‘Prefer not to answer’ (PNA) and ‘I don’t know’ (IDK), each predicted participant nonresponse in follow-up surveys (incremental pseudo-R2 = 0.056), even when controlling for education and self-reported health (incremental pseudo-R2 = 0.046). After performing genome-wide association studies of our factors, PNA and IDK were highly genetically correlated with one another (rg = 0.73 (s.e. = 0.03)) and with education (rg,PNA = −0.51 (s.e. = 0.03); rg,IDK = −0.38 (s.e. = 0.02)), health (rg,PNA = 0.51 (s.e. = 0.03); rg,IDK = 0.49 (s.e. = 0.02)) and income (rg,PNA = –0.57 (s.e. = 0.04); rg,IDK = −0.46 (s.e. = 0.02)), with additional unique genetic associations observed for both PNA and IDK (P

Suggested Citation

  • Gianmarco Mignogna & Caitlin E. Carey & Robbee Wedow & Nikolas Baya & Mattia Cordioli & Nicola Pirastu & Rino Bellocco & Kathryn Fiuza Malerbi & Michel G. Nivard & Benjamin M. Neale & Raymond K. Walte, 2023. "Patterns of item nonresponse behaviour to survey questionnaires are systematic and associated with genetic loci," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(8), pages 1371-1387, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:7:y:2023:i:8:d:10.1038_s41562-023-01632-7
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01632-7
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