Table 2.
Surveyed articles that reported on the extent of exposure measurement error but either asserted or implied that it was negligible in the sense that it was not deemed to be a threat to biasing results enough to alter stated conclusions of the articles
| Authors | Estimated Exposure | True exposure | Description of validity or reliability of exposure provided by the authors | Some resources that may have been useful in assessing the bias from exposure measurement error in more details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chechet et al. [19] | Seropositivity | Past SARS-CoV-2 infection | Biopanda COVID-19 IgM/IgG Rapid Test Kits do not measure seropositivity with perfect accuracy. There is a delay between infection and seropositivity, which then wanes. Authors specified that, “[t]he CE-marked Biopanda COVID-19 IgM/IgG Rapid Test Kit [sensitivity >99% (95% CI: 93.3%–100%), specificity 98.6% (95% CI: 94.9%–99.8%)] was used… The presence of IgM antibodies indicates a recent infection (7–28 days prior to sampling); IgG antibodies typically appear approximately 14 days after infection and endure for at least several months,…" (p.1364). | Ciotti M, Benedetti F, Zella D, Angeletti S, Ciccozzi M, Bernardini S. SARS-CoV-2 Infection and the COVID-19 Pandemic Emergency: The Importance of Diagnostic Methods. Chemotherapy. 2021;66(1-2):17-23. doi: 10.1159/000515343. Epub 2021 Mar 19. PMID: 33744904; PMCID: PMC8089410. Goldstein ND, Quick H, Burstyn I. Effect of Adjustment for Case Misclassification, and Infection Date Uncertainty on Estimates of COVID-19 Effective Reproduction Number. Epidemiology. 2021 Nov 1;32(6):800-806. doi: 10.1097/EDE.0000000000001402. PMID: 34310444; PMCID: PMC8478862. |
| Leclair et al. [59] | Level of American football, self-reported | Repetitive head impacts (RHI | Level of American football was used as a surrogate for RHI sustained while playing football. But it was noted by the authors that “[the] study was also limited in that highest level of American football playing served as a proxy measure for RHI. However, we were unable to consider other measures of exposure, such as frequency of RHI, or even duration of play as Mez et al. did (2020), because the methods employed rely on having information on the exposure for the target population" (p. 1441). | Clara, K. Profiling Brain Trauma in Professional American-style Football and the Implications to Developing Neurological Injury. University of Ottawa. 2019; Mez J, Daneshvar DH, Abdolmohammadi B, et al. Duration of American football play and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Ann Neurol. 2020;87(1):116–131. |
| Nguyen et al. [65] | Parental self-reported vaccine hesitancy: “not at all hesitant, not that hesitant, somewhat hesitant, or very hesitant?" (p. 1627). | Parental vaccine hesitancy | The validity of self-report of hesitancy was evaluated mostly qualitatively and judged to be consistent (reliable), however, comparison with another question from the same survey aimed to elicit similar information on belief in benefits of vaccines did not show a perfect agreement with the one selected by the authors. | Opel DJ, Taylor JA, Mangione-Smith R, Solomon C, Zhao C, Catz S, Martin D. Validity, and reliability of a survey to identify vaccine-hesitant parents. Vaccine. 2011 Sep 2;29(38):6598-605. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2011.06.115. Epub 2011 Jul 16. PMID: 21763384. National Center for Health Statistics. The Cognitive Evaluation of Survey Items Related to Vaccine Hesitance and Confidence for Inclusion on a Series of Short Question Sets. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, 2020. P. 100-102. |
| Chazelas et al. [18] | Nitrite and nitrate intakes from natural sources and food additives based on self-report of 24-hour food intake linked to database on content of food and intake | Nitrite and nitrate intakes | Authors cited literature that could have been used to adjust for measurement error in exposure in a sophisticated manner, using tools developed specifically for nutritional epidemiology. | Touvier M, Kesse-Guyot E, Mejean C et al. Comparison between an interactive web-based self-administered 24 h dietary record and an interview by a dietitian for large-scale epidemiological studies. Br J Nutr 2011;105:1055–64. Lassale C, Castetbon K, Laporte F et al. Validation of a Web-based, self-administered, non-consecutive-day dietary record tool against urinary biomarkers. Br J Nutr 2015;113:953–62. Lassale C, Castetbon K, Laporte F et al. Correlations between fruit, vegetables, fish, vitamins, and fatty acids are estimated by web- based nonconsecutive dietary records and respective biomarkers of nutritional status. J Acad Nutr Diet 2016;116:427–38. |
| He et al. [37] | Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for lung function that were independent of outcome and exposure, can only affect outcome via exposure and strongly associated with it (i.e., instrumental variable, IV). | Maternal lung function | The first stage F-statistic of >10 was used to select SNPs. It is derived from regression analysis and that regression could indicate the degree of error that use of a given SNP introduced into analysis. | None identified but methods to adjust for measurement error in IV exist Paul Gustafson, Measurement Error Modelling with an Approximate Instrumental Variable, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B: Statistical Methodology, Volume 69, Issue 5, November 2007, Pages 797–815 Vansteelandt S, Babanezhad M, Goetghebeur E. Correcting Instrumental Variables Estimators for Systematic Measurement Error. Stat Sin. 2009 Jan 1; 19:1223-1246. PMID: 20046952; PMCID: PMC2743431. |
| Huntley et al. [42] | Enforceable vs. unenforceable stay-at-home orders | Change in be behavior due to enforceable vs. unenforceable stay-at-home orders | “The identified executive orders in Web Table 1 were cross validated with other available databases and were found to be in agreement, suggesting that the orders reviewed were directly those specifying SAH policy and no other related emergency public health measures" (p. 2). If the rating of orders was not perfect and did not agree with perception of these orders, exposure may have been misclassified. Compliance with SAH orders was not accessed. | J Raifman, K Nocka, D Jones, et al. COVID-19 US state policy response. https://statepolicies.com/data/graphs/stay-at-home-order/. Updated July 27, 2020. Accessed October 14, 2020.” |
| Aker et al. [2] | Two physician visits or one hospitalization due to asthma | Confirmed asthma diagnosis | The authors used “a validated ICES algorithm for identifying asthma" (p.966), and note that information on accuracy is imperfect but do not speculate on the impact of potential inaccuracies. | Gershon AS, Wang C, Guan J, Vasilevska-Ristovska J, Cicutto L, To T. Identifying patients with physician-diagnosed asthma in health administrative databases. Can Respir J 2009; 16:183–88 |
| Ako et al. [3] | Self-reported gallbladder disease | Medical diagnosis of gallbladder disease | The authors state that “[t]he primary exposure was gallbladder disease. Data on gallbladder disease was collected at baseline. Participants were asked, “Did a doctor ever say that you had gallbladder disease or gallstones?” “Did you ever have a procedure to remove gallstones?” and “Did you have your gallbladder removed?” During follow-up, incident physician-diagnosed gallbladder disease continued to be reported by participants until study close-out in 2005. Data on cholecystectomy was collected at baseline but not during follow-up" (p.1375). | Not provided by authors |
| Bo et al. [10] | Annual PM2.5 concentration | Air pollution constituents | “The model was validated by comparing the modelled annual average PM2.5 concentration with the annual monitored ground-level PM2.5-monitoring data from >70 monitoring stations across Taiwan, with corresponding correlation coefficients ranging from 0.72 to 0.83" (p.227). | Krall, J. R., Chang, H. H., Sarnat, S. E., Peng, R. D., & Waller, L. A. (2015). Current Methods and Challenges for Epidemiological Studies of the Associations Between Chemical Constituents of Particulate Matter and Health. Current environmental health reports, 2(4), 388–398. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-015-0071-y |
| Bodnar et al. [11] | Diet rich in fruits and vegetables | Fruit and vegetable consumption | "The FFQ has acceptable validity relative to other self-reported assessment tools in many samples of pregnant women" (p.26–31). “FFQ data have been shown to be subject to a greater degree of systematic measurement error than other self-reporting methods, at least for absolute intakes" (p.67, 68). "This error can have unexpected effects, but attenuation of associations and reduced precision are common" (p.69). | Block G, Hartman AM, Dresser CM, et al. A data-based approach to diet questionnaire design and testing. Am JEpidemiol. 1986;124(3):453–469. Block G, Woods M, Potosky A, et al. Validation of a self-administered diet history questionnaire using multiple. diet records. J Clin Epidemiol. 1990;43(12):1327–1335. Johnson BA, Herring AH, Ibrahim JG, et al. Structured Measuring error in nutritional epidemiology: applications in Pregnancy, Infection, and Nutrition (PIN) Study. J AmStat Assoc. 2007;102(479):856–866. Mares-Perlman JA, Klein BE, Klein R, et al. A diet history questionnaire ranks nutrient intakes in middle-aged and older. men and women similarly to multiple food records. J Nutr. 1993;123(3):489–501. Boucher B, Cotterchio M, Kreiger N, et al. Validity and reliability of the Block98 food-frequency questionnaire in a sample of Canadian women. Public Health Nutr. 2006;9(1): 84–93. Block G, Coyle LM, Hartman AM, et al. Revision of dietary. analysis software for Health Habits and History Questionnaire. Am J Epidemiol. 1994;139(12):1190–1196. |
| Wang C-R et al. [88] | Dietary diabetes risk-reduction score | Dietary nutrient intake | Authors state that “it has been suggested that the approaches using baseline diet data only in general yield a weaker association than do these using the cumulative averages" (p.483). | Hu FB, Stampfer MJ, Rimm E, et al. Dietary fat and coronary heart disease: a comparison of approaches for adjusting for total energy intake and modeling repeated dietary measurements. Am J Epidemiol. 1999;149(6):531–540.] |
| Wang C. et al.[87] | Ratio of recent vs. Usual physical activity | Physical activity, caloric burning | Authors do not provide validity or reliability on exposure. | Andrade R, Wik EH, Rebelo-Marques A, et al. Is the acute: chronic workload ratio (ACWR) associated with risk of time-loss injury in professional team sports? A systematic review of methodology, variables, and injury risk in practical situations. Sports Med. 2020;50(9):1613–1635. |
| Chen et al. [20] | Air pollution from stationary measurements and spatial models | Air pollution constituents | “There may be exposure misclassification in this study because we used exposure data from a spatial model rather than at the personal level. Additionally, women’s behaviors with respect to exposure might change after conception. They are prone to taking measures, such as wearing a mask in seriously air-polluted days when going out or using an air purifier at home, to reduce levels of air-pollution exposure during pregnancy. However, information on the behavior changes was unavailable in this study" (p.209). | Krall, J. R., Chang, H. H., Sarnat, S. E., Peng, R. D., & Waller, L. A. (2015). Current Methods and Challenges for Epidemiological Studies of the Associations Between Chemical Constituents of Particulate Matter and Health. Current environmental health reports, 2(4), 388–398. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-015-0071-y |
| Cote et al. [21] | Fruit and vegetable pesticide residue status | Oral Pesticide consumption | The exposure assessment used in this study has been previously validated, with correlation between PRBS assessment and presence of urinary biomarkers of pesticide exposure in 2 separate cohorts. | Hu Y, Chiu YH, Hauser R, et al. Overall and class-specific scores of pesticide residues from fruits and vegetables as a tool to rank intake of pesticide residues in United States: a validation study. Environ Int. 2016;92-93:294–300. Chiu YH, Williams PL, Mínguez-Alarcón L, et al. Comparison of questionnaire-based estimation of pesticide residue intake from fruits and vegetables with urinary concentrations of pesticide biomarkers. J Expo Sci EnvironEpidemiol. 2018;28(1):31–39. |
| Johnson et al. [44] | PM2.5 and NO2 residential location | Air pollution constituents | While the authors did not explicitly provide validity or reliability of exposure, they did impute missing exposure information, conduct sensitivity analyses, and use Bayesian methods for analyses. | Krall, J. R., Chang, H. H., Sarnat, S. E., Peng, R. D., & Waller, L. A. (2015). Current Methods and Challenges for Epidemiological Studies of the Associations Between Chemical Constituents of Particulate Matter and Health. Current environmental health reports, 2(4), 388–398. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-015-0071-y |
| Julian-Serrano et al. [46] | Dietary assessment via FFQ | Nutrient consumption | Validation of the FFQ was performed within a subset of the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, using 2 24-hour dietary recalls. | Thompson FE, Kipnis V, Midthune D, et al. Performance of a food-frequency questionnaire in the US NIH-AARP (National Institutes of Health–American Association of Retired Persons) Diet and Health Study. Public Health Nutr. 2008;11(2):183–195.] |
| Kendzia et al. [54] | Exposure to welding fumes | Specific inhalation exposure to welding fume constituents | The authors used a welding-exposure matrix (WEM) based on quantitative measurements. WEM was combined with work histories and the authors note that this approach has been coupled in the past with sensitivity analyses to assumptions in the exposure assessment. | de Vocht, F., Burstyn, I., Ferro, G., Olsson, A., Hashibe, M., Kromhout, H., & Boffetta, P. (2009). Sensitivity of the association between increased lung cancer risk and bitumen fume exposure to the assumptions in the assessment of exposure. International archives of occupational and environmental health, 82(6), 723–733. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-008-0373-6 |
| Lergenmuller et al. [60] | Self-reported use of sunscreen and SPF | Dermal exposure to benzene and other sunscreen constituents | "Exposure misclassification, inevitable in epidemiologic studies, is likely nondifferential in cohort studies, although differential misclassification can occur when forming categories" (p.47). [Flegal KM, Keyl PM, Nieto FJ. Differential misclassification arising from nondifferential errors in exposure measurement. Am J Epidemiol. 1991;134(10):1233–1244.] | Petersen B, Wulf HC. Application of sunscreen—theory and reality. Photodermatol Photoimmunol Photomed. 2014; 30(2–3):96–101 |
| Shitole et al. [76] | Lab method used to measure biomarkers of NEFA exposure | Exposure to NEFA | “One-time measurements of NEFA are known to be unreliable owing to the high variability NEFA flux and NEFA’s short half-life (3). Repeated measures would help address this variability, but this was not available for postload NEFA. Thus, our single measurements of NEFA may be underestimating the associations with longer-term events" (p.1245). | Karpe F, Dickmann JR, Frayn KN. Fatty acids, obesity, and insulin resistance: time for a reevaluation. Diabetes. 2011; 60(10):2441–2449. |
| Soares et al. [79] | Childhood tramua screener for childhood maltreatment | Childhood trauma | “Although there is poor agreement between retrospective and prospective measures of childhood adversities, retrospective measures have been shown to be valid in population studies, thought they might underestimate the association with objectively measured outcomes, such as CVD" (p.563). | Grabe HJ, Schulz A, Schmidt CO et al. A brief instrument for the assessment of childhood abuse and neglect: the Childhood Trauma Screener (CTS). Psychiat Prax 2012; 39:109–15. |
| Van Gennip et al. [83] | Caregiver report of provider diagnosis of Asthma | Confirmed Asthma diagnosis | Studies examining the validity of questionnaire-based asthma diagnosis in children, using questions similar to those used in the current study, have reported a specificity higher than 95% compared with health claims as the reference standard and a specificity higher than 87% compared with a clinical assessment as the standard. Furthermore, the use of a stricter definition of asthma to reduce potential misclassification yielded similar results. | Boal AH, Smith DJ, McCallum L, et al. Monotherapy with major antihypertensive drug classes and risk of hospital admissions for mood disorders. Hypertension. 2016;68(5): 1132–1138. Mehta R, Hodakowski A, Cai X, et al. Serum phosphate and retinal microvascular changes: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and the Beaver Dam Eye Study. OphthalmicEpidemiol. 2017;24(6):371–380. |
| Wei et al. [89] | FFQ assessment of dietary copper intake | Oral copper consumption | “The intake of copper, zinc, and iron measured with Willett has been validated with 7-day dietary records (energy-adjusted intraclass correlation coefficients = 0.60, 0.49, and 0.54, respectively)" (p.1203). | Yuan C, Spiegelman D, Rimm EB, et al. Validity of a dietary questionnaire assessed by comparison with multiple weighed dietary records or 24-hour recalls. Am J Epidemiol. 2017; 185(7):570–584 |
| Wesselink et al. [90] | Self-reported vaccination and infection of COVID-19 | Confirmed COVID-19 infection | “In validation studies of influenza vaccination in the past year, 97% agreement was found between vaccination status based on self-report and medical records" (p.1392). | King JP, McLean HQ, Belongia EA. Validation of self-reported influenza vaccination in the current and prior season. Influenza Other Respi Viruses. 2018;12(6): 808–813 |
| Zhong et al. [95] | PM2.5 exposure based on spatial maps and models | Air pollution constituents | “A recent study by McIsaac et al. (29) demonstrated the potential to misclassify exposure as spatial resolution decreased" (p.1537). | McIsaac MA, Sanders E, Kuester T, et al. The impact of image resolution on power, bias, and confounding: a simulation study of ambient light at night exposure. Environ Epidemiol. 2021;5(2): e145 |