Document Detail


Inter-rater agreement of assessed prenatal maternal occupational exposures to lead.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  17044050     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
BACKGROUND: Industrial hygienists' assessments of prenatal occupational exposures based on parental job histories is a promising approach for population-based case-control studies of birth defects and other perinatal outcomes. However, evaluations of inter-rater agreement of such assessments have been limited. METHODS: We examined inter-rater agreement of occupational lead exposure assessments of maternal job reports by industrial hygienists in a population-based case-control study of parental occupational lead exposure and low birth weight. A total of 178 jobs with potential exposure to lead during the 6 months before pregnancy to the end of pregnancy were examined. Three industrial hygienists evaluated these jobs independently for exposure to lead including probability of exposure, type of exposure, route of entry, exposure frequency, duration, and intensity. Inter-rater agreement of these assessments beyond chance was evaluated using the kappa statistic (kappa). RESULTS: In general, inter-rater agreement was greater for assessment of direct exposures than assessment of indirect exposures. However, inter-rater agreement varied with the lead exposure metric under consideration, being: 1) fair to good for type of direct exposure (i.e., inorganic or organic), respiratory exposure and frequency of exposure to direct inorganic lead, hours per day of direct (i.e., inorganic or organic), and intensity of direct inorganic exposure; 2) poor for probability and type of indirect exposure (inorganic or organic); and 3) indeterminate for frequency of direct organic exposure, frequency of indirect exposures (organic or inorganic), and intensity of direct exposures (organic or inorganic). CONCLUSION: Retrospective assessment of maternal prenatal exposures to lead by industrial hygienists can provide some reliable metrics of exposure for studies of perinatal outcomes. Reliability studies of such exposure assessments may be useful for: quantifying the reliability of derived exposure metrics; identifying exposure metrics for exposure-outcome analyses; and determining the reliability of prenatal occupational exposures to other agents of interest.
Authors:
Adolfo Correa; Yuan-I Min; Patricia Ann Stewart; Peter S J Lees; Patrick Breysse; Mustafa Dosemeci; Leila W Jackson
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural; Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Birth defects research. Part A, Clinical and molecular teratology     Volume:  76     ISSN:  1542-0752     ISO Abbreviation:  Birth Defects Res. Part A Clin. Mol. Teratol.     Publication Date:  2006 Nov 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2006-11-14     Completed Date:  2007-01-23     Revised Date:  2007-12-03    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  101155107     Medline TA:  Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  811-24     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Department of Epidemiology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. acorrea@cdc.gov
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Adult
Case-Control Studies
Female
Humans
Infant, Low Birth Weight
Infant, Newborn
Lead / adverse effects*
Lead Poisoning / epidemiology*
Maternal Exposure / adverse effects,  statistics & numerical data*
Observer Variation
Occupational Diseases / epidemiology*,  etiology
Occupational Exposure / adverse effects,  statistics & numerical data*
Occupational Health
Pregnancy
Reproducibility of Results
Retrospective Studies
United States / epidemiology
Grant Support
ID/Acronym/Agency:
R29 ES06218/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS
Chemical
Reg. No./Substance:
7439-92-1/Lead

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


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