title: [Reliability of self-reported information by farmers on pesticide use].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Exposure assessment is a major challenge faced by studies that evaluate the association between pesticide exposure and adverse health outcomes. The objective of this study was to investigate the reliability of information that farmers self-report regarding their pesticide use.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty five items based upon existing questionnaires were designed to focus on pesticide exposure. In 2009 a self-administrated survey was conducted on two occasions four weeks apart among 205 farmers residing in Gyeonggi and Gangwon provinces. For a reliability measure, we calculated the percentage agreement, the kappa statistics and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between the two reports according to the characteristics of the subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Agreement for ever-never use of any pesticide was 96.4% (kappa 0.61). For both 'years used' and 'age at the first use' of overall pesticides, high agreement was obtained (ICC: 0.88 and, 0.78, respectively), whereas those of 'days used' and 'hours used' were relatively low (ICC: 0.42 and, 0.66, respectively). The kappa value for the use of personal protective equipment ranged from 0.46 to 0.59, and hygiene activities came out at 0.19 to 0.37. The agreement for individual pesticide use ranged widely and there was relatively low agreement due to the low response rates. The reliability scores did not significantly vary according to gender, age, the education level, the types of crop or the years of farming.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results support that carefully designed, self-reported information on ever-never pesticide use among farmers is reliable. However, the reliability of data on individual pesticide exposure may be unstable due to low response rates and needs to be refined.
authors.affiliation: Department of Preventive Medicine, Korea University College of Medicine, Korea.
authors.forename: Yo Han
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Eun Shil
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Cha
authors.forename: Eun Kyeong
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: Kyoung Ae
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: Sang Baek
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.forename: Yun Keun
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Won Jin
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000383:Agriculture / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010575:Pesticides; D011481:Protective Clothing; D057566:Self Report
chemical_list: D010575:Pesticides