Final Sample Status
A total of 2,253 Older Minnesotans responded to
the telephone interviews for the 2001 Survey of
Older Minnesotans:
- 1,639 with respondents who were 55 or older,
and
- 614 supplemental interviews with respondents
who were 65 or older.
Overall statewide response rate was 65 percent
for the 55+ sample and 58 percent for the 65+
supplement sample.
Weighting of the Data
All summary data presented has been weighted
based upon:
- the total number of age-eligible adults living
in the household;
- up-weighting the number of respondents under
65 years old, so that the proportion of under 65
vs 65+ is maintained; and
- making the correction for the regional
oversampling, so that the statewide distribution
reflects the actual distribution of the
population 55 and older. Weighted response
distributions will differ slightly from
unweighted distributions. For example, although
2,253 actual interviews were completed, the
weighted statewide data file indicates there are
2,488 cases.
Sampling Error
The margin of error for a simple random sample of
the size of the 2001 Survey of Older Minnesotans
is plus or minus 2.0 percentage points, when the
distribution of question responses is in the
vicinity of 50 percent. The corresponding margin of
error for each region’s weighted data file is plus
or minus 4.2 percentage points for 550 completed
interviews and plus or minus 4.0 percentage points
for 600 completed interviews. These sampling errors
presume the conventional 95 percent degree of
desired confidence, which is equivalent to a
"significance level" of .05. This means
that no more than one time in 20 should chance
variations in the sample cause the overall survey
results to vary by more than 2.0 percentage points
from the answers that would be obtained if all
Minnesota residents 55 and older were interviewed.
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