Retrospective assessment of shift-work in epidemiological studies - Lessons learned.

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Occupational Health
• Biostatistics

Background:

• Assessing shift-work exposure accurately is vital for epidemiological research.
• International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) working group recommendations guide shift-work assessment.
• The Heinz Nixdorf Recall (HNR) cohort study utilized these recommendations for detailed interviews.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the agreement between different shift-work assessment methods.
• To compare shift-work characteristics reported at baseline and during a 10-year follow-up.
• To investigate the reliability of shift-work data based on key summary questions versus detailed histories.

Main Methods:

• Employed three distinct assessment methods for shift-work characteristics.
• Utilized interviews at two time points: baseline (2000-2003) and 10-year follow-up (2011-2013).
• Measured agreement using simple agreement (%), Gwet's AC1, and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC).
• Applied beta-regression models to analyze age and sex effects on reliability.

Main Results:

• High agreement observed for 'ever shift-work' and 'duration of shift-work' between baseline and follow-up assessments.
• Gwet's AC1 for 'ever shift-work' in men until baseline was 0.77.
• High reliability for 'duration of shift-work' when comparing summary questions and detailed histories (ICC=0.96 in women), with slight decrease in older individuals.
• Participants experienced difficulties recalling more detailed shift-work information.

Conclusions:

• Key summary questions provide reliable data for 'ever shift-work' and 'duration of shift-work'.
• Recall reliability for shift-work characteristics slightly diminishes with increasing age.
• These findings support the use of simplified assessment tools for shift-work exposure in large cohort studies, acknowledging age-related recall limitations.