Agreement of job-exposure matrix (JEM) assessed exposure and self-reported exposure among adult leukemia patients and controls in Shanghai.
BACKGROUND
Estimating a person's history of occupational exposure in case-control studies is difficult.


METHODS
Percent agreement between selected self-reported occupational exposures and job-exposure matrix (JEM) exposure assessment for all participants and various subgroups of a population-based case-control interview study of 486 leukemia subjects and 502 healthy controls in Shanghai was evaluated.


RESULTS
With JEM as the "gold standard," the sensitivities for self-reported exposures ranged from 0.75 to 0.98. However, that for pesticide exposure was 0.44 in subjects >51 years old. Self-reported exposures specificities ranged from 0.87 to 0.99. Agreement between self-reported exposures and JEM assessment was good (kappa coefficients [kappa]: 0.48-0.84). Variations in agreement for benzene exposure between males and females as well as between the direct interview and surrogate interview subgroups were observed.


CONCLUSIONS
The levels of agreement between self-report and JEM in this study suggest that self-reported exposures are a suitable method for assessing occupational exposures in this population.
Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Meharry Medical College, 1005 Dr. D.B. Todd Jr. Blvd., Nashville, TN 37208, USA. oadegoke@mmc.edu
Olufemi J
OJ
Adegoke
Aaron
A
Blair
Xiao
X
Ou Shu
Maureen
M
Sanderson
Cheryl L
CL
Addy
Mustafa
M
Dosemeci
Wei
W
Zheng
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001554:Benzene / Q000633:toxicity; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007938:Leukemia / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000633:toxicity; D010575:Pesticides / Q000633:toxicity; D012042:Registries; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012997:Solvents / Q000633:toxicity
D009930:Organic Chemicals; D010575:Pesticides; D012997:Solvents; D001554:Benzene