Cargando…

The validity of self-reported cancer screening history and the role of social disadvantage in Ontario, Canada

BACKGROUND: Self-report may not be an accurate method of determining cervical, breast and colorectal cancer screening rates due to recall, acquiescence and social desirability biases, particularly for certain sociodemographic groups. Therefore, the aims of this study were to determine the validity o...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lofters, Aisha, Vahabi, Mandana, Glazier, Richard H
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4319224/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25630218
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1441-y
_version_ 1782355926919938048
author Lofters, Aisha
Vahabi, Mandana
Glazier, Richard H
author_facet Lofters, Aisha
Vahabi, Mandana
Glazier, Richard H
author_sort Lofters, Aisha
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Self-report may not be an accurate method of determining cervical, breast and colorectal cancer screening rates due to recall, acquiescence and social desirability biases, particularly for certain sociodemographic groups. Therefore, the aims of this study were to determine the validity of self-report of cancer screening in Ontario, Canada, both for people in the general population and for socially disadvantaged groups based on immigrant status, ethnicity, education, income, language ability, self-rated health, employment status, age category (for cervical cancer screening), and gender (for fecal occult blood testing). METHODS: We linked multiple data sources for this study, including the Canadian Community Health Survey and provincial-level health databases. Using administrative data as our gold standard, we calculated validity measures for self-report (i.e. sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios, positive and negative predictive values), calculated report-to-record ratios, and conducted a multivariable regression analysis to determine which characteristics were independently associated with over-reporting of screening. RESULTS: Specificity was less than 70% overall and for all subgroups for cervical and breast cancer screening, and sensitivity was lower than 80% overall and for all subgroups for fecal occult blood testing FOBT. Report-to-record ratios were persistently significantly greater than 1 across all cancer screening types, highest for the FOBT group: 1.246 [1.189-1.306]. Regression analyses showed no consistent patterns, but sociodemographic characteristics were associated with over-reporting for each screening type. CONCLUSIONS: We have found that in Ontario, as in other jurisdictions, there is a pervasive tendency for people to over-report their cancer screening histories. Sociodemographic status also appears to influence over-reporting. Public health practitioners and policymakers need to be aware of the limitations of self-report and adjust their methods and interpretations accordingly.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4319224
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2015
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-43192242015-02-07 The validity of self-reported cancer screening history and the role of social disadvantage in Ontario, Canada Lofters, Aisha Vahabi, Mandana Glazier, Richard H BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Self-report may not be an accurate method of determining cervical, breast and colorectal cancer screening rates due to recall, acquiescence and social desirability biases, particularly for certain sociodemographic groups. Therefore, the aims of this study were to determine the validity of self-report of cancer screening in Ontario, Canada, both for people in the general population and for socially disadvantaged groups based on immigrant status, ethnicity, education, income, language ability, self-rated health, employment status, age category (for cervical cancer screening), and gender (for fecal occult blood testing). METHODS: We linked multiple data sources for this study, including the Canadian Community Health Survey and provincial-level health databases. Using administrative data as our gold standard, we calculated validity measures for self-report (i.e. sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios, positive and negative predictive values), calculated report-to-record ratios, and conducted a multivariable regression analysis to determine which characteristics were independently associated with over-reporting of screening. RESULTS: Specificity was less than 70% overall and for all subgroups for cervical and breast cancer screening, and sensitivity was lower than 80% overall and for all subgroups for fecal occult blood testing FOBT. Report-to-record ratios were persistently significantly greater than 1 across all cancer screening types, highest for the FOBT group: 1.246 [1.189-1.306]. Regression analyses showed no consistent patterns, but sociodemographic characteristics were associated with over-reporting for each screening type. CONCLUSIONS: We have found that in Ontario, as in other jurisdictions, there is a pervasive tendency for people to over-report their cancer screening histories. Sociodemographic status also appears to influence over-reporting. Public health practitioners and policymakers need to be aware of the limitations of self-report and adjust their methods and interpretations accordingly. BioMed Central 2015-01-29 /pmc/articles/PMC4319224/ /pubmed/25630218 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1441-y Text en © Lofters et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Lofters, Aisha
Vahabi, Mandana
Glazier, Richard H
The validity of self-reported cancer screening history and the role of social disadvantage in Ontario, Canada
title The validity of self-reported cancer screening history and the role of social disadvantage in Ontario, Canada
title_full The validity of self-reported cancer screening history and the role of social disadvantage in Ontario, Canada
title_fullStr The validity of self-reported cancer screening history and the role of social disadvantage in Ontario, Canada
title_full_unstemmed The validity of self-reported cancer screening history and the role of social disadvantage in Ontario, Canada
title_short The validity of self-reported cancer screening history and the role of social disadvantage in Ontario, Canada
title_sort validity of self-reported cancer screening history and the role of social disadvantage in ontario, canada
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4319224/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25630218
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1441-y
work_keys_str_mv AT loftersaisha thevalidityofselfreportedcancerscreeninghistoryandtheroleofsocialdisadvantageinontariocanada
AT vahabimandana thevalidityofselfreportedcancerscreeninghistoryandtheroleofsocialdisadvantageinontariocanada
AT glazierrichardh thevalidityofselfreportedcancerscreeninghistoryandtheroleofsocialdisadvantageinontariocanada
AT loftersaisha validityofselfreportedcancerscreeninghistoryandtheroleofsocialdisadvantageinontariocanada
AT vahabimandana validityofselfreportedcancerscreeninghistoryandtheroleofsocialdisadvantageinontariocanada
AT glazierrichardh validityofselfreportedcancerscreeninghistoryandtheroleofsocialdisadvantageinontariocanada