Olson J E, Shu X O, Ross J A, Pendergrass T, Robison L L
Department of Pediatric Epidemiology/Clinical Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA.
Am J Epidemiol. 1997 Jan 1;145(1):58-67. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009032.
Epidemiologic studies frequently obtain exposure information through subjects' self-report (personal interview or mailed questionnaire). The authors used data from a case-control study of infant leukemia, to assess the validity and reliability of maternally reported information on birth characteristics such as birth weight, reproductive history, and medical procedures. Cases were gathered from the Children's Cancer Group, a United States and Canadian cooperative clinical trails group with approximately 100 member and affiliate institutions, during 1983-1988. Telephone interviews were completed for 302 cases and 558 matched controls. Medical records of the index pregnancy were obtained for 287 cases and 467 controls. Correlations between medical charts and maternal interview were high for birth weight (r = 0.98, kappa = 0.9) and gestational age (r = 0.86, kappa = 0.6). Mean differences between the two sources were small, -10.5 g for birth weight and -0.36 weeks for gestational age. Reproductive history and medical procedures had high to moderate reliability. Problems after delivery and pregnancy complications generally had low validity and reliability. Little evidence of differential misclassification was found. Time between delivery and interview ranged from zero to 8 years and did not greatly affect reliability. This study suggests that validity and reliability of maternally reported pregnancy and delivery information may differ with the nature of the factor of interest, but is affected little by time from birth or case-control status.
流行病学研究常常通过受试者的自我报告（个人访谈或邮寄问卷）来获取暴露信息。作者利用一项婴儿白血病病例对照研究的数据，评估母亲报告的出生特征信息（如出生体重、生育史和医疗程序）的有效性和可靠性。病例来自儿童癌症研究组，这是一个由美国和加拿大约100个成员及附属机构组成的合作临床研究组织，时间跨度为1983年至1988年。对302例病例和558例匹配对照进行了电话访谈。获取了287例病例和467例对照的索引妊娠医疗记录。医疗图表与母亲访谈之间在出生体重（r = 0.98，kappa = 0.9）和孕周（r = 0.86，kappa = 0.6）方面的相关性很高。两个来源之间的平均差异很小，出生体重为-10.5克，孕周为-0.36周。生育史和医疗程序的可靠性高到中等。分娩后问题和妊娠并发症的有效性和可靠性通常较低。几乎没有发现差异误分类的证据。分娩与访谈之间的时间间隔从零到8年不等，对可靠性影响不大。这项研究表明，母亲报告的妊娠和分娩信息的有效性和可靠性可能因感兴趣因素的性质而异，但受出生时间或病例对照状态的影响很小。
