) This project's long-term objective is to improve data collection on early-life sun exposure in etiologic studies of melanoma and other skin cancers; findings may have implications for epidemiologic studies involving recall of other early-life risk factors like diet and physical exercise.
The specific aims are: 1) to develop instruments for adult recall of childhood sun exposure through key informant interviews and collegial pretesting, focus groups, cognitive interviewing and field pretesting; 2) to evaluate the developed instruments, through field testing in young adult melanoma cases and population controls, as to response completeness, test-retest reliability, and the effect of these on odds ratio estimates. The investigators have developed, from existing instruments, a life events calendar to help define stable exposure periods and a draft questionnaire. Further preliminary development through interviews with other investigators and collegial pretesting will be unfunded work. Funding is requested for the focus group, cognitive interview, field pretest and evaluation phases. Focus groups of young melanoma cases and like-aged population controls will be invited to discuss the way they think about and retrieve information concerning early life sun exposure (memory triggers, salient aspects, etc.) and then to review the draft questionnaire and provide feedback for improvements. Analysis of these sessions will result in a revised questionnaire. Small-group cognitive interviews will explore how subjects comprehend and prepare answers to the questions in this revised instrument. Resulting refinements to wording and probes will be pretested in telephone interviews and then field tested in a sample of melanoma cases and population controls, with reinterview at least four months later. Evaluation will focus on item nonresponse and reliability in cases and controls, and the effect of these on odds ratio estimates.
| Relova, Anne-Sharon; Marrett, Loraine D; Klar, Neil et al. (2005) Predictors of self-reported confidence ratings for adult recall of early life sun exposure. Am J Epidemiol 162:183-92 |
