In response to the "ceiling and floor effects" present in the classical item count technique, a new item count technique is designed to estimate the proportion of sensitive questions by combining a sensitive question with a non-sensitive one. In the new approach, both experimental groups contain sensitive questions. Theoretical and numerical simulation results show that under certain conditions, the new method can obtain more effective estimators, which not only enhances privacy protection, but also eliminates the "ceiling and floor effects" of the classical item count technique.
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