Daily Self-Reports Resulted in Information Bias When Assessing Exposure Duration to Computer Use

作者：Chang Che hsu; Menendez Cammie Chaumont; Robertson Michelle M; Amick Benjamin C III; Johnson Peter W; del Pino Rosa J; Dennerlein Jack T^*

来源：American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2010, 53(11): 1142-1149.

DOI：10.1002/ajim.20878

• exposure assessment
• musculoskeletal disorders
• computer use
• self-report

Background Self-reported exposure duration to computer use is widely used in exposure assessment, and this study examined the associated information bias in a repeated measures setting.
Methods For 3 weeks, 30 undergraduate students reported daily cumulative computer-use duration and musculoskeletal symptoms at four random times per day. Usage-monitor software installed onto participant's personal computers provided the reference measure. We compared daily self-reported and software-recorded duration, and modeled the effect of musculoskeletal symptoms on observed differences.
Results The relationships between daily self-reported and software-recorded computer-use duration varied greatly across subject with Spearman's correlations ranging from -0.22 to 0.8. Self-reports generally overestimated computer use when software-recorded durations were less than 3.6 hr, and underestimated when above 3.6 hr Experiencing symptoms was related to a 0.15-hr increase in self-reported duration after controlling for software-recorded duration.
Conclusions Daily self-reported computer-use duration had a weak-to-moderate correlation with software-recorded duration, and their relationship changed slightly with musculoskeletal symptoms. Self-reports resulted in both non-differential and differential information bias. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:1142-1149,2010.

• 出版日期2010-11