3 ms·
If part of the value for participants was to know whether they had antibodies, then those that had gone through a flu (or covid) would be more likely to respond
by rhema 6y ago
If part of the value for participants was to know whether they had antibodies, then those that had gone through a flu (or covid) would be more likely to respond. This means that the overall sample likely includes more people who had COVID than a true random sampling would.
- tshadley 6y agoIt looks like there's an argument to be made it could overcount or undercount depending on importance of each potential bias. "This study had several limitations. First, our sampling strategy selected for members of Santa Clara County with access to Facebook and a car to attend drive-through testing sites. This resulted in an overrepresentation of white women between the ages of 19 and 64, and an under-representation of Hispanic and Asian populations, relative to our community. Those imbalances were partly addressed by weighting our sample population by zip code, race, and sex to match the county. We did not account for age imbalance in our sample, and could not ascertain representativeness of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in homeless populations. Other biases, such as bias favoring individuals in good health capable of attending our testing sites, or bias favoring those with prior COVID-like illnesses seeking antibody confirmation are also possible. The overall effect of such biases is hard to ascertain."