title: [Quality of the information obtained by a questionnaire survey in studying the epidemiology of malignant neoplasms].
abstract: The quality of the data collected in a retrospective cohort breast cancer study in Estonia was evaluated. Two separate approaches were used to investigate possible biases in the study. Firstly, a similar questionnaire was mailed to a sample of 86 women twice during an interval of one week to six months. Overall questionnaire reliability was 83.4%. Secondly, comparisons of the data obtained by postal questionnaires about past history of lung tuberculosis with hospital medical record information revealed that 2.5% of women with severe forms of the disease and 30.3% with milder forms (controls) had denied their previous disease. These findings show that more attention must be paid to the quality control procedures in cancer epidemiology studies.
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D004957:Estonia; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009381:Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D011031:Pneumothorax, Artificial; D011786:Quality Control; D011859:Radiography; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy
vernacular_title: Kachestvo informatsii, poluchaemoĭ v rezul'tate anketnogo oprosa pri izuchenii épidemiologii zlokachestvennykh novoobrazovaniia.