title: Inter-rater agreement in the assessment of solvent exposure at a car assembly plant.
abstract: This study investigated the feasibility and the reproducibility of a retrospective assessment of solvent exposure in the painting operations of a car assembly plant. Five industrial hygienists (the raters) reviewed summary documents on plant operations and solvent exposure levels, developed from plant records and interviews. The raters independently reviewed 695 department-job-year combinations compiled from 29 work histories and used semi-quantitative scores to rate solvent exposure. Inter-rater agreement was evaluated by computing the percent concordance index and the intraclass correlation coefficient (rI). There was discordance among raters, a large proportion of which pertained to low exposure levels (1-5 ppm). The computation of the rI is sensitive to the distribution of exposure levels. A low rI can be observed for a rare exposure even if the percent concordance is high. Inter-rater agreement was good for cumulative exposure scores computed for frequent exposures: coatings (rI = 0.67), aromatic hydrocarbons (rI = 0.66), and petroleum distillates (rI = 0.62).
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Alabama, Birmingham School of Public Health 35294-0008.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Macaluso
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Delzell
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Perkins
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oestenstad
mesh_terms: D001336:Automobiles; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D010150:Paint; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012997:Solvents
chemical_list: D012997:Solvents