Longest held job in U.S. occupational groups: the National Health Interview Survey

We sought to assess the validity of using current or most recent occupation as surrogate for longest-held job (and its exposures).

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is an annual, probability, cross-sectional U.S. population survey. The 1986 and 1988 NHIS occupational supplements provided information for more than 49,000 workers. Using Cohen's Kappa, concordance was assessed by occupational group and several subgroups.

Statistically significant results were observed for all occupational groups. More than 70% of 13 broad occupations had a Kappa of 50.0 or greater, with variable concordance by subpopulation. Among 206 occupational groups, there was more variability: Kappa ranged from 92.7 (dentists) to 9.2 (farm managers).

Moderate-to-high levels of agreement was observed in this large, representative sample of US workers. Therefore, current occupation can be used as a surrogate for longest-held job for many occupational subgroups.