Abstract
Objectives
To validate self-reported occupational loud noise exposure against expert evaluation of noise levels in a French case–control study on acoustic neuroma and to estimate the impact of exposure misclassification on risk estimation.
Methods
Noise levels were evaluated in 1006 jobs held by 111 cases and 217 population controls by an expert. Case–control differences in self-reporting were analyzed with logistic models. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and observed agreement of the self-reports were computed relative to the expert evaluation. They were used to calibrate the odds ratio (OR) between lifetime ever occupational loud noise exposure and the risk of acoustic neuroma, without adjustment for measurement error of the expert assessments.
Results
Cases reported noise levels in individual jobs closer to the expert assessment than controls, but the case–control difference was small for lifetime exposures. For expert-rated exposure of 80 dB(A), reporting of individual jobs by cases was more sensitive (54% in cases, 37% in controls), whereas specificity (91% in cases, 93% in controls) and observed agreement (82% in cases, 81% in controls) were similar. When lifetime exposure was considered, sensitivity increased (76% in cases, 65% in controls), while cases specificity decreased (84%). When these values were used to calibrate self-reports for exposure misclassification compared to expert evaluation at 80 dB(A), the crude OR of 1.7 was reduced to 1.3.
Conclusions
Despite the relatively accurate reporting of loud noise, the impact of the calibration on the OR was non-negligible.
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Acknowledgements
The authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article and they do not necessarily represent the views, decisions, or policies of the institutions with which they are affiliated. The authors thank the anonymous reviewer who provided useful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, and Dr Graham Byrnes for useful discussions about these. The authors acknowledge the Interphone Study Group and Dr E Cardis, PI, for the development of the questionnaire. The French Interphone team would like to thank the French fieldwork team: Mary-Pierre Herrscher, Fatima Lamri, Agnès Boidart, Hélène Gire, Juliette Krassilchik, Judith Lenti, Delphine Maillac, Frédérique Sonnet, Flore Taguiev, Julie Frantz, France Castay, Florian Gay, for their excellent work; all the hospital services who assisted us in the ascertainment of cases: Lyon—Centre Hospitalier Lyon—Sud (Prof. Dubreuil), Hôpital Neurologique Pierre Wertheimer (Prof. Fisher, Prof. Vallée, Prof. Bret, Prof. Sindou, Prof. Deruty); Paris—Hôpital Foch (Prof. Chabolle), Hôpital Beaujon (Prof. Sterkers, Dr Bouccara), Hôpital Lariboisière (Prof. Tran Ba Huy), Marseille—Hôpital de la Timone (Prof. Peragut, Dr Regis), as well as all those in the departments of medical information and all the hospital personnel, particularly the secretaries and the staff in the medical archives, whose assistance proved essential to the success of the project.
Funding
This work was supported by funding from the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) ‘Programme national de recherche Environnement-Santé Travail’ (contract EST 11-74). The Interphone study was supported by funding from the European Fifth Framework Program, ‘Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources’ (contract QLK4-CT-1999901563) and the International Union against Cancer (UICC). The UICC received funds for this purpose from the Mobile Manufacturers’ Forum and GSM Association. Provision of funds to the INTERPHONE study investigators via the UICC was governed by agreements that guaranteed Interphone’s complete scientific independence. The terms of these agreements are publicly available at http://www.iarc.fr/en/research-groups/RAD/RCAd.html. Additional funding for the Interphone study in France was provided by l’Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC) [Contrat No. 5142] and three network operators (Orange, SFR, Bouygues Télécom). The funds provided by the operators represented 5% of the total cost of the French study and were governed by contracts guaranteeing the complete scientific independence of the investigators.
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Deltour, I., Massardier-Pilonchery, A., Schlehofer, B. et al. Validation of self-reported occupational noise exposure in participants of a French case–control study on acoustic neuroma. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 92, 991–1001 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-019-01427-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-019-01427-2