Validation of self-reported motor-vehicle crash and related work leave in a multi-purpose prospective cohort

Abstract

Validation studies about self-reported motor vehicle crashes and related work leave are scarce. The Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) is a multi-purpose cohort study undertaken in Spain. Motor vehicle crash risk factors are assessed within it. The objective of this study was to validate the incidents of self-reported motor vehicle crashes (MVC) and related work leave through mailing and clinical notes' review. The method included questions in the cohort's questionnaire regarding motor vehicle crash incident and work leave. We made both a re-test and a criterion validity study for self-reported answers. The results show a moderate κ Cohen's correlation coefficient for both events. Re-test reliability κ for MVC was 0.55, for MVC-related work leave it was 0.53. Criterion validity κ was 0.25 for MVC and 0.25 for MVC-related work leave. These results show a moderate agreement for re-test both for MVC and work MVC-related leave. For criterion validity, the results show a fair agreement. The magnitude of the agreement is similar to other similar studies and allows the use of these data in epidemiological studies.

Keywords:

• motor vehicle crash
• validation
• reliability
• agreement
• injury

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Miguel Angel Martínez-González, principal investigator of the SUN study, Pedro Ruiz, María Alfonso and María Hidalgo for their clinical notes' data retrieval, Carmen de la Fuente for her work with questionnaires' management, Montse Ruiz for her manuscript review and Eduardo del Pozo de Dios for his graphical assistance. This study was funded by the Fondo de Investigación Santitaria (PI 03-030678).