Undercoverage Bias

Definition

Undercoverage bias refers to a type of bias that occurs when certain groups within the population are not adequately represented in the sample.

Analogy

Imagine you're trying to estimate the average height of students at your school by randomly selecting only students from one grade level. Since different grade levels have varying heights, your estimation would be biased and not representative of the entire student population.

Related terms

Selection Bias: Selection bias occurs when individuals or groups are selected for a study or survey in a way that is not random, leading to an unrepresentative sample and biased results.

Response Bias: Response bias refers to systematic errors introduced into surveys or studies due to participants' tendencies to answer questions inaccurately or misleadingly.

Coverage Bias: Coverage bias happens when certain segments of the population are excluded from the sampling frame, resulting in an incomplete representation of the target population.