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Parental reporting of childrens' coughing is biased

European Journal of Epidemiology volume 13, pages 541–545 (1997)Cite this article

Abstract

Assessment of cough in the clinical setting as well as in community-based studies of respiratory epidemiology has relied on self-reports. To examine the accuracy and potential for systematic bias in reported cough during a field study, questionnaires administered to parents about their childrens' coughing were compared to overnight cough recordings performed in 145 homes in the community of Wallaceburg, Canada. Percentage agreement between reported and recorded coughing was low, with kappa statistics ranging from 0.02–0.10. Compared to non-smoking parents, smokers under-reported their childrens' coughing (p = 0.01). The association found between parental smoking and recorded coughing was biased towards the null when reported coughing was substituted for recorded coughing: the odds ratio between parental smoking and recorded coughing was 3.1 (95% CI: 1.1–8.8) whereas for reported coughing it was 0.6 (95% CI: 0.2–1.7), the difference in the odds ratios being significant at p = 0.03. When carrying out field surveys, consideration should be given to measuring cough in a subsample of the population in order to estimate the degree of bias inherent in the questionnaire-based results.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Air Pollution – Health Effects Research Section, Health Canada, and the Department of Medicine and, Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Ottawa, Canada

    R.E. Dales

  2. Building Science, Research Division, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Canada

    J. White

  3. Department of Geography, University of Waterloo, Canada

    C. Bhumgara

  4. Biostatistics Section, Environmental Health Directorate, Health Canada, Canada

    E. McMullen

Authors
  1. R.E. Dales
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  2. J. White
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  3. C. Bhumgara
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  4. E. McMullen
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Dales, R., White, J., Bhumgara, C. et al. Parental reporting of childrens' coughing is biased. Eur J Epidemiol 13, 541–545 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007311912777

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  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007311912777

  • Cough
  • Epidemiology
  • Questionnaire
  • Reporting bias
  • Respiratory disease
  • Validation