@article{ref1,
title="Bias from potentially mischievous responders on large-scale estimates of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning (lgbq)-heterosexual youth health disparities",
journal="American journal of public health",
year="2018",
author="Cimpian, Joseph R. and Timmer, Jennifer D. and Birkett, Michelle A. and Marro, Rachel L. and Turner, Blair C. and Phillips, Gregory L.",
volume="108",
number="S4",
pages="S258-S265",
abstract="OBJECTIVES: To determine how sensitive estimates of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning (LGBQ)-heterosexual youth health disparities are to the presence of potentially mischievous responders. <br><br>METHODS: We used US data from the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, pooled across jurisdictions that included a question about sexual identity for a total sample of 148 960 students. We used boosted regressions (a machine-learning technique) to identify unusual patterns of responses to 7 screener items presumably unrelated to LGBQ identification, which generated an index of suspected mischievousness. We estimated LGBQ-heterosexual youth disparities on 20 health outcomes; then we removed 1% of suspected mischievous responders at a time and re-estimated disparities to assess the robustness of original estimates. <br><br>RESULTS: Accounting for suspected mischievousness reduced estimates of the average LGBQ-heterosexual youth health disparity by up to 46% for boys and 23% for girls; however, screening did not affect all outcomes equally. Drug- and alcohol-related disparities were most affected, particularly among boys, but bullying and suicidal ideation were unaffected. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Including screener items in public health data sets and performing rigorous sensitivity analyses can support the validity of youth health estimates.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0090-0036",
doi="10.2105/AJPH.2018.304407",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304407"
}