Home Use Tests (HUTs), a common method for evaluating consumer products in real-life settings, are widely adopted by companies to assess product acceptability under normal living conditions. However, the validity and generalisability of HUT results can be compromised by confounding variables—external factors unrelated to the product that influence consumer responses. This literature review examines the main methodological approaches used to identify, control, or adjust for confounding factors in HUT data, reflecting on the methodological challenges and strategies discussed in recent research. In the final section, we critically apply one of the identified methods, based on survey weight recalibration, to new consumer data from a company-led HUT study. This application illustrates how changes in the distribution of a confounding variable within a hypothetical target population can affect product liking scores.
University of Padua, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-6389-887X
University of Padua, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-8629-8439
University of Padua, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0001-6501-1585
University of Padua, Italy - ORCID: 0009-0006-8654-8684
Titolo del capitolo
Confounding factors in home use tests: A critical review and methodological application
Autori
Elena Barzizza, Riccardo Ceccato, Luigi Salmaso, Silvia Villanova
Lingua
Inglese
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1062-1.12
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Titolo del libro
Data, Statistics and AI for Well-Being of People and Organisations
Curatori
Luigi Fabbris, Alberto Franci, Pietro Renzi
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
420
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-1062-1
ISBN Print
979-12-215-1061-4
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-1062-1
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-1063-8
Collana
Applied Statistics Series