title: OccIDEAS: retrospective occupational exposure assessment in community-based studies made easier.
abstract: Assessing occupational exposure in retrospective community-based case-control studies is difficult as measured exposure data are very seldom available. The expert assessment method is considered the most accurate way to attribute exposure but it is a time consuming and expensive process and may be seen as subjective, nonreproducible, and nontransparent. In this paper, we describe these problems and outline our solutions as operationalized in a web-based software application (OccIDEAS). The novel aspects of OccIDEAS are combining all steps in the assessment into one software package; enmeshing the process of assessment into the development of questionnaires; selecting the exposure(s) of interest; specifying rules for exposure assignment; allowing manual or automatic assessments; ensuring that circumstances in which exposure is possible for an individual are highlighted for review; providing reports to ensure consistency of assessment. Development of this application has the potential to make high-quality occupational assessment more efficient and accessible for epidemiological studies.
authors.affiliation: Western Australian Institute for Medical Research, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6012, Australia. fritschi@waimr.uwa.edu.au
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fritschi
authors.forename: Melissa C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Friesen
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Glass
authors.forename: Geza
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Benke
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Girschik
authors.forename: Troy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sadkowsky
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012984:Software; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires