Validity Concerns with Multiplying Ordinal Items Defined by Binned Counts: An Application to a Quantity-Frequency Measure of Alcohol Use.

Abstract

Social and behavioral scientists often measure constructs that are truly discrete counts by collapsing (or binning) the counts into a smaller number of ordinal responses. While prior quantitative research has identified a series of concerns with similar binning procedures, there has been a lack of study on the consequences of multiplying these ordinal items to create a desired index. This measurement strategy is incorporated in many research applications, but it is particularly salient in the study of substance use where the product of ordinal quantity (number of drinks) and frequency (number of days) items is used to create an index of total consumption. In the current study, we demonstrate both analytically and empirically that this multiplicative procedure can introduce serious threats to construct validity. These threats, in turn, directly impact the ability to accurately measure alcohol consumption.