Measuring psychological distress among Australians using an online survey

Abstract

Objective: To compare estimated levels of psychological distress in the Australian population as measured by online versus face-to-face survey methodologies. Method: Kessler Psychological Distress Scale scores from a nationally representative online survey of 955 Australians were compared to results from the 2014–2015 and 2017–2018 National Healthy Surveys, which were conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Results: Australians in the online survey reported levels of psychological distress that were significantly higher than those that completed the face-to-face National Health Surveys. This difference was greatest among respondents aged 18 to 34 years. Conclusions: These results can likely be attributed to the effect of conducting the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale via a face-to-face interview versus an online survey. There are compelling reasons to believe that online surveys elicit more honest responses on sensitive issues, while face-to-face surveys are prone to social desirability bias. This suggests that Australian psychological distress may have been systematically under-estimated in previous research.