Validity and reliability of self reported occupational histories
| Authors, year | Study population | Occupational history measure | Comparison measure | Method of assessing validity or reliability | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samet et al, 19784 | 70 shipyard insulation workers | Years of self reported employment as pipefitter in interviewer administered questionnaire in 1976 | Years of self reported employment, by same method, 1 year later | - R2 for regression of two measures of years of employment | - R2 = 0.95 |
| Baumgarten et al, 19835 | 274 cancer cases and 23 controls from Montreal, Canada | Self reported employer, as indicated on a self administered questionnaire with an in-person interview follow up (1979–81) | Quebec Pension Plan records from 1966–1978 linked by social insurance number | - % agreement; agreement if start or end date within ± 1 year | - 82% of person-years in agreement |
| - 87.9% had at least 6 of 13 years in agreement | |||||
| - 64.3% of work histories had at least 12 of 13 years in agreement | |||||
| Koskela et al, 19846 | 3000 living current and former employees of foundries, metal product manufacturers, and electrical devices manufacturers hired between 1950 and 1976 in Finland | Self reported occupational histories as reported on a questionnaire | Occupational histories based on employer personnel records | - % agreement | - 85–86% of person-years in agreement |
| Rosenberg et al, 19877 | 288 workers employed at a US capacitor manufacturing plant between 1947 and 1976 | Self reported work history, as reported in an interviewer assisted questionnaire in 1976 | Company personnel records with jobs classified into 40 categories | - % of person months in which job classification agreed, computed for each individual | - 76.6% mean agreement for men (median >85%, range 20–99%) |
| - 74.3% mean agreement for women (median >80%, range 15–100%) | |||||
| Stewart et al, 19878 | 229 controls from a cohort employed between 1940 and 1979 in 2 US shipyards | Self reported work at the shipyard, year of hire and termination, and job held longest, as reported in a telephone interview in 1983 | Company personnel records of all jobs held for at least 1 month | - % agreement and kappa | - 95% agreement on shipyard employment |
| - sensitivity and specificity of reporting of specific jobs | - 81% on start year within ± 1 year, kappa = 0.78; 73% on termination year within ± 1 year, kappa = 0.71; 67% on job held longest, kappa = 0.65 | ||||
| - specificities for jobs from 0.95 to 1, sensitivities from 0 to 1, median = 0.71 | |||||
| Eskenazi and Pearson, 19889 | 57 women working during pregnancy, recruited in a US prenatal clinic | Self reported primary occupation and industry reported in a self administered questionnaire | Self reported primary occupation and industry reported in a clinical interview an average of 3.3 weeks apart | - % agreement | - 86% perfect matches on primary occupation, 95% at least close matches |
| - 84% perfect matches on primary industry, 93% at least close matches | |||||
| Bond et al, 198810 | 143 males employed for at least 1 year at a US chemical plant on or after 1940 | Self reported work history at plant, as reported in a telephone interview in 1984 | Company records of 400 department titles collapsed into 50 similar work areas | - % agreement | - 76.2% agreement on usual work area assignments |
| - 50.6% agreement on number of work area assignments | |||||
| Bourbonnais et al, 198811 | 100 male employees with at least 5 years' experience in a Canadian shipyard | Self reported work history in shipyard, as reported in an in-person interview | Company records of job titles and starting dates for each job held ≥6 months | - % agreement | - 89% agreement on job held longest |
| - 62% agreement on starting date within ± 1 year | |||||
| Rona and Mosbech, 198912 | 370 cancer cases from 8 European countries | Self reported work history, as reported in interviewer or self administered questionnaires | Self reported work history by same method, at least one month apart | - % agreement and kappa | - 84% agreement on most recent job, kappa = 0.82 |
| - 78% on previous job, kappa = 0.76 | |||||
| - 74% on jobs held >10 years, kappa = 0.74 | |||||
| Brisson et al, 199113 | 154 females employed for at least 5 years in 5 garment factories in Montreal, Canada | Self reported employer from 1955 to 1983, as reported in an in-person interview | Public pension and union records | - % agreement; agreement if start or end date within ± 1 year | - 81% of person-years in agreement |
| - 89% for recent employment vs. 74% for employment ≥12 years earlier | |||||
| Wärneryd et al, 199114 | 25,586 randomly selected members of the Swedish population aged 25 to 74 | Self reported jobs held for at least 2 years throughout working life, as reported in an interview in 1977 or 1979–81 | Self reported job during week of census in 1960, 1970, 1975, and 1980, coded to the Nordic Occupational Classification | - % agreement with occupational codes at 1-, 2-, and 3-digit level for each census year | - 81–88% agreement at 1-digit level |
| - 66–78% at 2-digit level | |||||
| - 52–72% at 3-digit level | |||||
| Booth-Jones et al, 199815 | 49 US carpenters from a study examining musculoskeletal symptoms | Self reported history of any of 14 specific job duties | Self reported history of any of 14 specific job duties, 1 to 3 weeks later | - % agreement and kappa | - 87.9 % agreement |
| - kappa = 0.73 | |||||
| Brower and Attfield, 199816 | 480 coal miners enrolled in US National Study of Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis | Self reported work history, as reported in interview in 1969–1971 | Self reported work history, as reported in interview in 1977–1981 | - intraclass correlation coefficient for job tenure | - ICC=0.95 |
| - mean tenure 20.6 years based on 1st interview, 20.8 years based on 2nd |