title: Test-retest repeatability of assessing environmental and lifestyle factors in Parkinson's disease.
abstract: Epidemiological studies of environmental risk factors in Parkinson's disease (PD) are dependent on recollection of past exposures based on patients' self-reports. There are limited studies that have assessed the quality of such data. We conducted a prospective study to determine the test-retest repeatability of environmental and lifestyle factors, and medical data in a PD cohort of Asian ethnicity. A total of 150 consecutive PD patients were initially screened, and 100 were recruited and completed an initial interview. Eighty-three patients completed the second interview more than 6 months later. Lifestyle habits (such as smoking and coffee consumption) showed excellent agreement (kappa > 0.90). For the amount and duration of coffee, tea, alcohol, and cigarette smoking exposure, the total agreement in the response for these factors in the repeat interview were noted in 71.4%, 73.3%, 100%, and 90%, respectively (ICC > 0.83). Medical conditions for which the patients were on treatment, such as diabetes, hypertension, and stroke, revealed very high repeatability (kappa = 0.81-0.90). Environmental exposures like well-water consumption and prior farm-dwelling produced a moderately good repeatability (kappa = 0.66-0.77). In conclusion, our study demonstrates that even over long interval period of more than half a year, self-report lifestyle exposure information, personal and environmental exposure data can be collected with moderate-to-high repeatability from PD patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, National Neuroscience Institute, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: Chun-Wai
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Yip
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, National Neuroscience Institute, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
authors.forename: Eng-King
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Tan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires