Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health

The Korean Society for Preventive Medicine (대한예방의학회)
권호 표지

Reliability of a Questionnaire for Women's Reproductive History

여성의 출산력과 초경 및 폐경 연령에 대한 설문지의 신뢰도

  • Ko, Kwang-Pil (Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine) ;
  • Park, Sue-Kyung (Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine) ;
  • Kim, Yeon-Ju (Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine) ;
  • Bae, Ji-Suk (Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine) ;
  • Jun, Jae-Kwan (Division of Cancer Prevention, National Cancer Control Research Institute, National Cancer Center) ;
  • Gwack, Jin (Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine) ;
  • Yoo, Keun-Young (Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine)
  • 고광필 (서울대학교 의과대학 예방의학교실) ;
  • 박수경 (서울대학교 의과대학 예방의학교실) ;
  • 김연주 (서울대학교 의과대학 예방의학교실) ;
  • 배지숙 (서울대학교 의과대학 예방의학교실) ;
  • 전재관 (국립암센터 국가암관리사업단 암예방사업부) ;
  • 곽진 (서울대학교 의과대학 예방의학교실) ;
  • 유근영 (서울대학교 의과대학 예방의학교실)
  • Published : 2008.05.31
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

Objectives : This study was performed to evaluate the reproducibility of a questionnaire concerned with reproductive history and to ascertain which characteristics of the subjects (age, the visit-revisit intervals, education and chronic disease) are associated with good reliability in the Korean Multi-Center Cancer Cohort (KMCC) study. Materials and Methods: A total of 19,688 participants were enrolled between 1993 and 2004. Among them, we selected 386 participants who were aged 40 or more and who re-visited within 8 years after the first visit. Reliability was measured by the percent agreement according to error range for the continuous variables and the percent agreement and kappa statistics for the categorical variables. Results : The pregnancy histories were reliable (kappa=0.67) and the reasons for being menopausal among the postmenopausal women were also reliable (kappa=0.92). The percent agreement of the breast-feeding history was high (96.1%), although the kappa statistic was low. For the continuous variables, when the error range of one variable was considered to be reliable, the percent agreement of the age at menarche and the age at the first full term pregnancy was good (69.4% and 83.6%), whereas that of the age at menopause was low (51.5%). The factors associated with high reliability were a younger age, the presence of chronic disease and a short visit-revisit time interval. Conclusions : The agreements for parity, the reasons for menopause, and the breastfeeding history in the reproductive history questionnaire used in the KMCC were relatively good. The questionnaire for the menarche age and the menopausal age might have lower reliability due to the difference between Korean age and American age. To obtain reliable information, more attention should be given to the items in questionnaire-based surveys, and especially for surveying old-aged women.

Keywords

References

  1. Rockhill B, Moorman PG, Newman B. Age at menarche, time to regular cycling, and breast cancer (North Carolina, United States). Cancer Causes Control 1998; 9(4): 447-453 https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008832004211
  2. Xu WH, Xiang YB, Ruan ZX, Zheng W, Cheng JR, Dai Q, et al. Menstrual and reproductive factors and endometrial cancer risk: Results from a population-based casecontrol study in urban Shanghai. Int J Cancer 2004; 108(4): 613-619 https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.11598
  3. Walker CL. Role of hormonal and reproductive factors in the etiology and treatment of uterine leiomyoma. Recent Prog Horm Res 2002; 57: 277-294 https://doi.org/10.1210/rp.57.1.277
  4. Newcomb PA, Egan KM, Titus-Ernstoff L, Trentham-Dietz A, Greenberg ER, Baron JA, et al. Lactation in relation to postmenopausal breast cancer. Am J Epidemiol 1999; 150(2): 174-182 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009977
  5. Chiaffarino F, Pelucchi C, Negri E, Parazzini F, Franceschi S, Talamini R, et al. Breastfeeding and the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer in an Italian population. Gynecol Oncol 2005; 98(2): 304-308 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygyno.2005.05.006
  6. Rea MF. Benefits of breastfeeding and women's health. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2004; 80(5 Suppl): S142-S146 https://doi.org/10.2223/1247
  7. Belchetz P. Hormonal treatment of postmenopausal women. N Engl J Med 1994; 330(15); 1062-1071 https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM199404143301508
  8. Schlesselman JJ. Case-Control Studies: Design, Conduct, Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press; 1982
  9. Stein AD, Courval JM, Lederman RI, Shea S. Reproducibility of responses to telephone interviews: Demographic predictors of discordance in risk factor status. Am J Epidemiol 1995; 141(11): 1097-1105 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a117375
  10. Hong JS, Yi SW, Jee SH, Sohn TY, Ohrr H. Cohort study on age at menopause and mortality. Korean J Prev Med 2001; 34(4): 323-330. (Korean)
  11. Nam TS, Lee WD. A survey on menarche on school girls in Seoul and Daegu area. Korean J Prev Med 1976; 9(2): 153-158. (Korean)
  12. Altman DG. Practical Statistics for Medical Research. London: Chapman and Hall; 1991
  13. Casey VA, Dwyer JT, Coleman KA, Krall EA, Gardner J, Valadian I. Accuracy of recall by middle-aged participants in a longitudinal study of their body size and indices of maturation earlier in life. Ann Hum Biol 1991; 18(2): 155-166 https://doi.org/10.1080/03014469100001492
  14. Bergsten-Bruceford A. A note on the accuracy of recalled age at menarche. Ann Hum Biol 1976; 3(1): 71-73 https://doi.org/10.1080/03014467600001151
  15. Must A, Phillips SM, Naumova EN, Blum M, Harris S, Dawson-Hughes B, et al. Recall of early menstrual history and menarcheal body size: after 30 years, how well do women remember? Am J Epidemiol 2002; 155(7): 672-679 https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/155.7.672
  16. Koo MM, Rohan TE. Accuracy of short-term recall of age at menarche. Ann Hum Biol 1997; 24(1): 61-64 https://doi.org/10.1080/03014469700004782
  17. Cooper R, Blell M, Hardy R, Black S, Pollard TM, Wadsworth ME, et al. Validity of age at menarche self-reported in adulthood. J Epidemiol Community Health 2006; 60(11): 993-997 https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2005.043182
  18. Rödström K, Bengtsson C, Lissner L, Björkelund C. Reproducibility of self-reported menopause age at the 24-year follow-up of a population study of women in Göteborg, Sweden. Menopause 2005; 12(3): 275-280 https://doi.org/10.1097/01.GME.0000135247.11972.B3
  19. Den Tonkelaar I. Validity and reproducibility of self-reported age at menopause in women participating in the DOM-project. Maturitas 1997; 27(2): 117-123 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-5122(97)01122-5
  20. Hahn RA, Eaker E, Rolka H. Reliability of reported age at menopause. Am J Epidemiol 1997; 146(9): 771-775 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009353
  21. Bosetti C, Tavani A, Negri E, Trichopoulos D, La Vecchia C. Reliability of data on medical conditions, menstrual and reproductive history provided by hospital controls. J Clin Epidemiol 2001; 54(9): 902-906 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0895-4356(01)00362-6
  22. Cicchetti DV, Feinstein AR. High agreement but low kappa: II. Resolving the paradoxes. J Clin Epidemiol 1990; 43(6): 551-558 https://doi.org/10.1016/0895-4356(90)90159-M
  23. Feinstein AR, Cicchetti DV. High agreement but low kappa: I. The problems of two paradoxes. J Clin Epidemiol 1990; 43(6): 543- 549 https://doi.org/10.1016/0895-4356(90)90158-L
  24. Scarlett SL, Sally LG, Susan LS. Reliability of self-reported reproductive factors and childhood social class indicators in a casecontrol study in women. Ann Epidemiol 2002; 12(4): 242-247 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1047-2797(01)00262-9
  25. Mills KM, Kheifets LI, Nelson LM, Bloch DA, Takemoto-Hambleton R, Kelsey JL. Reliability of proxy-reported and self-reported household appliance use. Epidemiology 2000; 11(5): 581-588 https://doi.org/10.1097/00001648-200009000-00015