%0 Journal Article %J Am J Ind Med %D 1995 %T Effect of recall period on the reporting of occupational injuries among older workers in the Health and Retirement Study. %A Zwerling, Craig %A Nancy L. Sprince %A Robert B Wallace %A Charles S. Davis %A Paul S. Whitten %A Steven G Heeringa %K Accidents, Occupational %K Adult %K Aged %K Bias %K Cross-Sectional Studies %K Data collection %K Female %K Humans %K Incidence %K Linear Models %K Male %K Mental Recall %K Middle Aged %K Models, Statistical %K Reproducibility of Results %K Retirement %K Risk Factors %K Time Factors %K United States %X

Studies of injury morbidity often rely on self-reported survey data. In designing these surveys, researchers must chose between a shorter recall period to minimize recall bias and a longer period to maximize the precision of rate estimates. Using data from the Health and Retirement Study, which employed a recall period of 1 year, we examined the effect of the recall period on rates of occupational injuries among older workers as well as upon rate ratios of these injuries for nine risk factors. We fit a stochastic model to the occupational injury rates as a function of time before the interview and used this model to estimate what the injury rates would have been had we used a 4-week recall period. The adjusted occupational injury rate of 5.9 injuries per 100 workers per year was 36% higher than the rate based on a 1-year recall period. Adjustment for recall period had much less effect on rate ratios, which typically varied by < 10%. Our work suggests that self-reported surveys with longer recall periods may be used to estimate occupational injury rates and also may be useful in studying the associations between occupational injuries and a variety of risk factors.

%B Am J Ind Med %I 28 %V 28 %P 583-90 %8 1995 Nov %G eng %N 5 %1 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8561168?dopt=Abstract %4 Accidents, Occupational/Adult/Bias (Epidemiology)/Morbidity/Gender/Incidence/Middle Age/Models, Statistical/Recall/Reproducibility of Results/Retirement/Risk Factors/Support, U.S. Government--PHS/Time Factors %$ 4425 %R 10.1002/ajim.4700280503