Can the Participant Speak Beyond Likert? Free Text Responses in COVID-19 Obesity Surveys.

Thomas, Diana M; Siegel, Benjamin; Baller, Daniel; Lindquist, Joseph; Cready, Gywn; Zervios, James T; Nadglowski, Joseph F; Kyle, Theodore K

Research on lifestyle changes during the COVID-19 pandemic often relies on Likert-type scale question surveys. Survey participants respond to questions by selecting one of the numerically ordered choices, "Strongly Disagree"=1, "Disagree"=2, "Neutral"=3, "Agree"=4, and "Strongly Agree"=5. Analyzing Likert-type data requires statistical methods beyond approaches like linear regression. First, it is unclear if the distance between choices are truly equal. For example, are "Agree" and "Strongly Agree" more close than "Neutral" and "Agree? Second, summarizing results using traditional means makes little sense. For example, would a mean of 4.5 imply "Agree and a half"? Finally, participants tend to select more central choices and less extremes.