Design of exposure questionnaires for epidemiological studies

Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Volumn 62, Issue 4, 2005, Pages

  Nieuwenhuijsen, M J ^a  

^a IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE; OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE; OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD; PRIORITY JOURNAL; RESEARCH; REVIEW; SELF REPORT; TECHNIQUE; ARTICLE; EPIDEMIOLOGY; HUMAN; INTERVIEW; NOMENCLATURE; QUESTIONNAIRE; RECALL; REPRODUCIBILITY; SELF EVALUATION;

ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURE; EPIDEMIOLOGIC METHODS; HUMANS; INTERVIEWS; MENTAL RECALL; QUESTIONNAIRES; REPRODUCIBILITY OF RESULTS; SELF ASSESSMENT (PSYCHOLOGY); TERMINOLOGY;

EID: 15944407664     PISSN: 13510711     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1136/oem.2004.015206     Document Type: Review

References (30)

1. Armstrong BK, White E, Saracci R. Principles of exposure measurement in epidemiology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. This book contains a number of good chapters on questionnaire design.
2. Nieuwenhuijsen MJ. Questionnaires. In: Nieuwenhuijsen MJ, ed. Exposure assessment in occupational and environmental epidemiology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. This chapter provides a good overview of the issues in questionnaire design, particularly for exposure assessment in occupational and environmental epidemiology.
3. Infante-Rivard C, Jacques L. Empirical study of parental recall bias. Am J Epidemiol 2000;152:480-6.
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6. Edwards P, Roberts I, Clarke M, et al. Increasing response rates to postal questionnaires: systematic review. BMJ 2002;324:1183-92. An very good of review of how to increase the response rate to postal questionnaires.
7. Künzli N, Kelly T, Balmes J, et al. Reproducibilily of retrospective assessment of outdoor time activity patterns as an individual determinant of long-term ambient ozone exposure. Int J Epidemiol 1997;26:1258-71.
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9. Kaur S, Nieuwenhuijsen MJ, Ferrier H, et al. Exposure of pregnant women to tap water related activities in London and validation of the questionnaire. Occup Environ Med 2004;61:454-60.
10. Shimokura GH, Savitz D, Symanski E. Assessment of water use for estimating exposure to tap water contaminants. Environ Health Perspect 1998;106:55-9.
11. Armstrong B. Exposure measurement error: consequences. In: Nieuwenhuijsen MJ, ed. Exposure assessment in occupational and environmental epidemiology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. This chapter provides a good description of the effect of exposure misclassitication and measurement error on the risk estimates in epidemiological studies.
12. Preller L, Kromhout H, Heederik D, et al. Modeling long-term average exposure in occupational exposure-response analysis. Scand J Work Environ Health 1995;21:504-12. An good example on how to combine questionnaire dato and actual measurements to improve exposure assessment.
13. Hansen KS. Validity of occupational exposure and smoking data obtained from surviving spouses and colleagues. Am J Ind Med 1996;30:392-7.
14. Debanne SM, Petot GJ, Li J, et al. On the use of surrogate respondents for controls in a case-control study of Alzheimer's disease. J Am Geriatr Soc 2001;49:980-4.
15. Engel LS, Seixas NS, Keifer MC, et al. Validity study of self-reported pesticide exposure among orchardists. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol 2001;11:359-68. One of the few studies that assessed the reliability of historical self-reported exposure using dato from the relevant time period.
16. Stewart PA, Stewart WF, Siemiatycki J, et al. Questionnaires for collecting detailed occupational information for community-based case-control studies. Am Ind Hyg Assoc J 1998;59:39-44. A good paper which describes the methodology and use of job specific questionnaires.
17. Teschke K, Kennedy SM, Olshan AF. Effect of different questionnaire formats on reporting of occupational exposures. Am J Ind Med 1994;26:327-37. One of the papers to study the effect of different questionnaire formats on reporting occupational exposures.
18. Stewart P, Rice C, Beatty P, et al. A qualitative evaluation of questions and response from five occupational questionnaires developed to assess exposure. Appl Occup Environ Hyg 2002;17:444-53. This is the first paper to report the use cognitive interviewing to improve questionnaire design in exposure assessment. Cognitive interviewing relies on responses to in-depth probes to address question comprehension, the ability of researchers to retrieve information from respondents' memories, and appropriateness of response format among other issues.
19. Zahm SH, Colt JS, Engel LS, et al. Development of a life events/icon calendar questionnaire to ascertain occupational histories and other characteristics of migrant farmworkers. Am J Ind Med 2001;40:490-501.
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21. Tesche K. Exposure surrogates: job-exposure matrices, self-reports, and expert evaluation. In: Nieuwenhuijsen MJ, ed. Exposure assessment in occupational and environmental epidemiology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. A good overview of use of exposure surrogates in occupational and environmental epidemiology, including job-exposure matrices.
22. Engel LS, Keifer MC, Zahm SH. Comparison of a traditional questionnaire with an icon/calendar-based questionnaire to asses occupational history. Am J Ind Med 2001;40:502-11.
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24. Barbone F, Valent F, Brussi V, et al. Assessing the exposure of pregnant women to drinking water disinfection byproducts. Epidemiology 2002;13:540-4. An example of both the validity and repeatability of a water related questionnaire are assessed.
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27. Tielemans E, Heederik D, Burdorf A, et al. Assessment of occupational exposures in a general population: comparison of different methods. Occup Environ Med 1999;56:145-51. A good example on how to assess the validity of questionnaire dato.
28. van de Gulden JW, Jansen IW, Verbeek AL, et al. Repeatability of self-reported data on occupational exposure to particular compounds. Int J Epidemiol 1993;22:284-7.
29. Westerdahl J, Anderson H, Olsson H, et al. Reproducibilily of a self-administered questionnaire for assessment of melanoma risk. Int J Epidemiol 1996;25:245-51.
30. Farrow A, Farrow SC, Little R, et al. The repeatability of self-reported exposure after miscarriage. ALPAC study team. Avonmouth study of pregnancy and childhood. Int J Epidemiol 1996;25:797-806.