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Re: SPA Missing Data - "Don't know" answers [message #23156 is a reply to message #23151] Fri, 23 July 2021 07:40 Go to previous message
Bridgette-DHS is currently offline  Bridgette-DHS
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Registered: February 2013
Senior Member

Following is another response from DHS Research & Data Analysis Director, Tom Pullum:

So far as assessing service readiness is concerned, the crucial response is "Yes". If you were constructing a null hypothesis, it would be that the facility does not have the equipment. If you have an indeterminate result, such as "don't know", the conservative strategy (consistent with minimizing Type I error in conventional hypothesis testing) would be to combine "don't know" with "No", rather than with "Yes".

I think it's a matter of whether you think of "Yes" or "No" as the outcome of interest--or, equivalently, what's the null hypothesis. In this context, the outcome of interest is "Yes". We don't want to over-estimate the prevalence of the favorable outcome, so "don't know" is combined with "No". But I can imagine an alternative approach in which the outcome of interest is "No", in which case the conservative strategy would be to combine "don't know" with "Yes", as you are suggesting.
 
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