Do panel surveys really make people sick? A commentary on Wilson and Howell (60:11, 2005, 2623-2627)

In this paper, we show that the evidence presented and the conclusions reached by Wilson and Howell are incorrect. Properly analyzed, three national health surveys-the NHIS, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), and HRS-all show increases in age-specific arthritis prevalence during the 1990s. Since the new HRS sample cohort introduced in 1998 represents only a part of that birth cohort, we also demonstrate that Wilson and Howell's evidence in favor of panel conditioning was flawed. We find little indication of panel conditioning among existing participants in a panel survey.