Using checklists and algorithms to improve qualitative exposure judgment accuracy

Details

• Personal Author:
  Arnold SF ; Drolet D ; Ramachandran G ; Stenzel M
• Description:
  Most exposure assessments are conducted without the aid of robust personal exposure data and are based instead on qualitative inputs such as education and experience, training, documentation on the process chemicals, tasks and equipment, and other information. Qualitative assessments determine whether there is any follow-up, and influence the type that occurs, such as quantitative sampling, worker training, and implementing exposure and risk management measures. Accurate qualitative exposure judgments ensure appropriate follow-up that in turn ensures appropriate exposure management. Studies suggest that qualitative judgment accuracy is low. A qualitative exposure assessment Checklist tool was developed to guide the application of a set of heuristics to aid decision making. Practicing hygienists (n=39) and novice industrial hygienists (n=8) were recruited for a study evaluating the influence of the Checklist on exposure judgment accuracy. Participants generated 85 pre-training judgments and 195 Checklist-guided judgments. Pre-training judgment accuracy was low (33%) and not statistically significantly different from random chance. A tendency for IHs to underestimate the true exposure was observed. Exposure judgment accuracy improved significantly (p <0.001) to 63% when aided by the Checklist. Qualitative judgments guided by the Checklist tool were categorically accurate or over-estimated the true exposure by one category 70% of the time. The overall magnitude of exposure judgment precision also improved following training. Fleiss' kappa, evaluating inter-rater agreement between novice assessors was fair to moderate (kappa = 0.39). Cohen's weighted and unweighted kappa were good to excellent for novice (0.77 and 0.80) and practicing IHs (0.73 and 0.89), respectively. Checklist judgment accuracy was similar to quantitative exposure judgment accuracy observed in studies of similar design using personal exposure measurements, suggesting that the tool could be useful in developing informed priors and further demonstrating its usefulness in producing accurate qualitative exposure judgments. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Decision Making Environmental Monitoring Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Quality Control Safety Staff Development
• Keywords:
  Analytical-instruments Author Keywords: Checklist Data-processing Decision-making Exposure-assessment Exposure Judgment Humans Industrial-hygienists Mathematical-models Occupational-exposure Qualitative-analysis Qualitative Judgments Quality-control Quality-standards Training

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• ISSN:
  1545-9624
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Minnesota ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  159-168
• Volume:
  13
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20046674
• Citation:
  J Occup Environ Hyg 2016 Mar; 13(3):159-168
• Contact Point Address:
  Gurumurthy Ramachandran, University of Minnesota, Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Minneapolis, MN 420 Delaware St. S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
• Email:
  ramac002@umn.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• Performing Organization:
  University of California, Los Angeles
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20130901
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
• End Date:
  20170831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:14993d088a62fb9106fa89d591eb2e2d4459c6c743a7dbbd036b9b15dbe8faf6053990fd7bcdfb44b721f74d4bcaa042b74b9aab1bec18e54a1598854d86bef3
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/202029/cdc_202029_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 787.04 KB ]