The influence of sociodemographic characteristics on agreement between self-reports and expert exposure assessments

Details

• Personal Author:
  Barbeau, Elizabeth M. ; Kriebel D ; Krieger N ; Quinn M ; Sembajwe G ; Stoddard A
• Description:
  BACKGROUND: Often in exposure assessment for epidemiology, there are no highly accurate exposure data and different measurement methods are considered. The objective of this study was to use various statistical techniques to explore agreement between individual reports and expert ratings of workplace exposures in several industries and investigate the sociodemographic influences on this agreement. METHODS: A cohort of 1,282 employees at 4 industries/14 worksites answered questions on workplace physical, chemical, and psychosocial exposures over the past 12 months. Occupational hygienists constructed job exposure matrices (JEMs) based on worksite walkthrough exposure evaluations. Worker self-reports were compared with the JEMs using multivariable analyses to explore discord. RESULTS: There was poor agreement between the self-reported and expert exposure assessments, but there was evidence that agreement was modified by sociodemographic characteristics. Several characteristics including gender, age, race/ethnicity, hourly wage and nativity strongly affected the degree of discord between self-reports and expert raters across a wide array of different exposures. CONCLUSIONS: Agreement between exposure assessment tools may be affected by sociodemographic characteristics. This study is cross-sectional and therefore, a snapshot of potential exposures in the workplace. Nevertheless, future studies should take into account the social contexts within which workplace exposures occur. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Age Factors Demography Environmental Monitoring Epidemiology Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Race Factors Safety Sex Characteristics Surveys And Questionnaires Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Age-factors Agreement Author Keywords: Exposure Assessment Data-processing Demographic-characteristics Discord Exposure-assessment Health-surveys Higher Estimation Industrial-factory-workers Industrial-hygienists Job Exposure Matrix Lower Estimation Occupational-exposure Occupational Epidemiology Questionnaires Racial-factors Sex-factors Sociological-factors Statistical-analysis Work-environment

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• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  53
• Issue:
  10
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20038113
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 2010 Oct; 53(10):1019-1031
• Contact Point Address:
  Dr. Grace Sembajwe, Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
• Email:
  grace_sembajwe@dfci.harvard.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2011
• Performing Organization:
  Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20010930
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• End Date:
  20050929
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:8e57f5cec9cc4c47ffa4ab7ef8f965a56c28e23740c609ad3ecc61f610d631995aa3fb31aff45151989f2e705fadf05a8da6d6ae7eeea6a0b77b53ecb6171c7a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/191923/cdc_191923_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 186.21 KB ]