Abstract
Background: Children’s information about their parents’ lifestyle is increasingly used in research, and it is crucial to assess its validity.
Aim: To validate offspring’s reports of parents’ smoking status and examine predictors for discrepant answers.
Methods: We studied 5678 offspring (18-51yrs) and one of their parents, n=4151 (38-65yrs) participating in the Respiratory Health in Northern Europe, Spain and Australia (RHINESSA) generation study. Information about parent’s smoking status during offspring’s childhood was obtained by questionnaires from parents and their offspring. We calculated sensitivity, specificity and Cohens Kappa for agreement (using parent’s own report as the gold standard). We performed logistic regression to examine if offspring gender, age, education, asthma, or own smoking status predicted agreement.
Results: The sensitivity for correct offspring report of parents smoking status during childhood (0-10yrs) was 0.83 (95% CI 0.82–0.85), specificity was 0.95 (95% CI 0.94–0.96) and a good agreement was seen (κ = 0.79, 95% CI 0.78–0.81). Similar results were seen for childhood defined as 0-18yrs. Logistic regression analysis showed that fewer discrepant answers were related to younger offspring age (<30yrs = odds ratio [OR] 0.66 (95% CI 0.51–0.86), 30-39yrs OR 0.70 (95% CI 0.54–0.90) reference ≥40yrs) and parents amount of smoking (≥10 cigarettes/day OR 0.56 (95% CI 0.44–0.71) reference <10). Offspring’s gender, education, smoking or asthma status did not predict discrepant answers.
Conclusion: Offspring quite correctly report their parents’ smoking status during the offspring’s childhood. In the absence of direct report, offspring’s reports could be valuable.
- Copyright ©the authors 2017