Measuring social desirability bias in a multi-ethnic cohort sample: its relationship with self-reported physical activity, dietary habits, and factor structure
Background: Social desirability bias is one of the oldest forms of response bias studied in social sciences. While individuals may feel the need to fake good or bad answers in response to sensitive or intrusive questions, it remains unclear how rampant such a bias is in epidemiological research per...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/169553 |
| _version_ | 1824456515490152448 |
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| author | Teh, Wen Lin Abdin, Edimansyah P. V., Asharani Siva Kumar, Fiona Devi Roystonn, Kumarasan Wang, Peizhi Shafie, Saleha Chang, Sherilyn Jeyagurunathan, Anitha Vaingankar, Janhavi Ajit Sum, Chee Fang Lee, Eng Sing van Dam, Rob M. Subramaniam, Mythily |
| author2 | Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) |
| author_facet | Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) Teh, Wen Lin Abdin, Edimansyah P. V., Asharani Siva Kumar, Fiona Devi Roystonn, Kumarasan Wang, Peizhi Shafie, Saleha Chang, Sherilyn Jeyagurunathan, Anitha Vaingankar, Janhavi Ajit Sum, Chee Fang Lee, Eng Sing van Dam, Rob M. Subramaniam, Mythily |
| author_sort | Teh, Wen Lin |
| collection | NTU |
| description | Background:
Social desirability bias is one of the oldest forms of response bias studied in social sciences. While individuals may feel the need to fake good or bad answers in response to sensitive or intrusive questions, it remains unclear how rampant such a bias is in epidemiological research pertaining to self-reported lifestyle indicators in a multicultural Asian context. The main purpose of the current study is, therefore, to examine the sociodemographic correlates and impact of social desirability responding on self-reported physical activity and dietary habits at an epidemiological scale in a non-western multi-cultural Asian setting.
Methods:
Prior to the main analyses, confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were conducted to determine the factorial validity of a western derived concept of social desirability. Multiple regression analyses were conducted on cross-sectional data (n = 2995) extracted from a nationwide survey conducted between 2019 and 2020.
Results:
A unique factor structure of social desirability was found and was therefore used for subsequent analyses. Multiple regression analyses revealed older age groups, the Indian ethnic group, those with past or present marriages, and having no income, had a significantly greater tendency to act on the bias.
Conclusion:
The construct of social desirability bias was fundamentally different in a multicultural context than previously understood. Only a small proportion of variance of self-report lifestyle scores was explained by social desirability, thus providing support for data integrity. |
| first_indexed | 2025-02-19T03:55:20Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/169553 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-19T03:55:20Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1695532023-07-30T15:37:54Z Measuring social desirability bias in a multi-ethnic cohort sample: its relationship with self-reported physical activity, dietary habits, and factor structure Teh, Wen Lin Abdin, Edimansyah P. V., Asharani Siva Kumar, Fiona Devi Roystonn, Kumarasan Wang, Peizhi Shafie, Saleha Chang, Sherilyn Jeyagurunathan, Anitha Vaingankar, Janhavi Ajit Sum, Chee Fang Lee, Eng Sing van Dam, Rob M. Subramaniam, Mythily Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) National Healthcare Group Polyclinics Science::Medicine Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Background: Social desirability bias is one of the oldest forms of response bias studied in social sciences. While individuals may feel the need to fake good or bad answers in response to sensitive or intrusive questions, it remains unclear how rampant such a bias is in epidemiological research pertaining to self-reported lifestyle indicators in a multicultural Asian context. The main purpose of the current study is, therefore, to examine the sociodemographic correlates and impact of social desirability responding on self-reported physical activity and dietary habits at an epidemiological scale in a non-western multi-cultural Asian setting. Methods: Prior to the main analyses, confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were conducted to determine the factorial validity of a western derived concept of social desirability. Multiple regression analyses were conducted on cross-sectional data (n = 2995) extracted from a nationwide survey conducted between 2019 and 2020. Results: A unique factor structure of social desirability was found and was therefore used for subsequent analyses. Multiple regression analyses revealed older age groups, the Indian ethnic group, those with past or present marriages, and having no income, had a significantly greater tendency to act on the bias. Conclusion: The construct of social desirability bias was fundamentally different in a multicultural context than previously understood. Only a small proportion of variance of self-report lifestyle scores was explained by social desirability, thus providing support for data integrity. National Medical Research Council (NMRC) Published version This study is funded by the National Medical Research Council of Singapore (NMRC/HSRG/0085/2018). 2023-07-24T05:08:49Z 2023-07-24T05:08:49Z 2023 Journal Article Teh, W. L., Abdin, E., P. V., A., Siva Kumar, F. D., Roystonn, K., Wang, P., Shafie, S., Chang, S., Jeyagurunathan, A., Vaingankar, J. A., Sum, C. F., Lee, E. S., van Dam, R. M. & Subramaniam, M. (2023). Measuring social desirability bias in a multi-ethnic cohort sample: its relationship with self-reported physical activity, dietary habits, and factor structure. BMC Public Health, 23(1), 415-. https://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15309-3 1471-2458 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/169553 10.1186/s12889-023-15309-3 36859251 2-s2.0-85149427083 1 23 415 en NMRC/HSRG/0085/2018 BMC Public Health © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Science::Medicine Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Teh, Wen Lin Abdin, Edimansyah P. V., Asharani Siva Kumar, Fiona Devi Roystonn, Kumarasan Wang, Peizhi Shafie, Saleha Chang, Sherilyn Jeyagurunathan, Anitha Vaingankar, Janhavi Ajit Sum, Chee Fang Lee, Eng Sing van Dam, Rob M. Subramaniam, Mythily Measuring social desirability bias in a multi-ethnic cohort sample: its relationship with self-reported physical activity, dietary habits, and factor structure |
| title | Measuring social desirability bias in a multi-ethnic cohort sample: its relationship with self-reported physical activity, dietary habits, and factor structure |
| title_full | Measuring social desirability bias in a multi-ethnic cohort sample: its relationship with self-reported physical activity, dietary habits, and factor structure |
| title_fullStr | Measuring social desirability bias in a multi-ethnic cohort sample: its relationship with self-reported physical activity, dietary habits, and factor structure |
| title_full_unstemmed | Measuring social desirability bias in a multi-ethnic cohort sample: its relationship with self-reported physical activity, dietary habits, and factor structure |
| title_short | Measuring social desirability bias in a multi-ethnic cohort sample: its relationship with self-reported physical activity, dietary habits, and factor structure |
| title_sort | measuring social desirability bias in a multi ethnic cohort sample its relationship with self reported physical activity dietary habits and factor structure |
| topic | Science::Medicine Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/169553 |
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