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Methodology for Establishing a Community-Wide Life Laboratory for Capturing Unobtrusive and Continuous Remote Activity and Health Data
Published on: July 27, 2018
Reliability of proxy-reported and self-reported household appliance use
K M Mills1, L I Kheifets, L M Nelson
1Division of Epidemiology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA.
Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.)
|August 24, 2000
Summary
Self-reported appliance use is reliable for recent exposure. Proxy respondents offer good recall for past year
Area of Science:
- Environmental Health
- Epidemiology
- Biostatistics
Background:
- Accurate exposure assessment is crucial for electric and magnetic fields (EMF) health studies.
- Proxy respondents are often necessary when study subjects are deceased, posing challenges for data reliability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the reliability of self- and proxy-reported household appliance exposure.
- To assess the impact of recall period and detail level on reporting accuracy.
Main Methods:
- Recruited 92 healthy couples for independent questionnaire administration.
- Assessed proxy-respondent reliability and self-respondent reliability over a 2-month interval.
- Utilized kappa coefficients to quantify agreement for reported appliance use.
Main Results:
- Reliability of proxy reports for any exposure in the past year was good (median kappa = 0.76).
- Reliability of self-reports over 2 months was excellent (median kappa = 0.87) for any past year exposure.
- Reporting accuracy decreased with increased recall time or detail for both methods.
Conclusions:
- Self-reported appliance use is highly reliable for recent periods and good for broader past exposures.
- Proxy respondents can provide reliable data on broad aspects of appliance exposure within the past year.
- Detailed exposure information or distant recall is unreliable using proxy respondents.
