451. Evaluating the accuracy of a geographic closed-ended approach to ethnicity measurement, a practical alternative.
- Author
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Omand JA, Carsley S, Darling PB, Parkin PC, Birken CS, Urquia ML, Khovratovich M, and Maguire JL
- Subjects
- Adult, Child, Preschool, Data Collection methods, Female, Humans, Infant, Mothers, Ontario, Prospective Studies, Reproducibility of Results, Censuses, Ethnicity, Self Report standards
- Abstract
Purpose: Measuring ethnicity accurately is important for identifying ethnicity variations in disease risk. We evaluated the degree of agreement and accuracy of maternal ethnicity measured using the new standardized closed-ended geographically based ethnicity question and geographic reclassification of open-ended ethnicity questions from the Canadian census., Methods: A prospectively designed study of respondent agreement of mothers of healthy children aged 1-5 years recruited through the TARGet Kids! practice-based research network. For the primary analysis, the degree of agreement between geographic reclassification of the Canadian census maternal ethnicity variables and the new geographically based closed-ended maternal ethnicity variable completed by the same respondent was evaluated using a kappa analysis., Results: Eight hundred sixty-two mothers who completed both measures of ethnicity were included in the analysis. The kappa agreement statistic for the two definitions of maternal ethnicity was 0.87 (95% confidence interval, 0.84-0.90) indicating good agreement. Overall accuracy of the measurement was 93%. Sensitivity and specificity ranged from 83% to 100% and 96% to 100%, respectively., Conclusions: The new standardized closed-ended geographically based ethnicity question represents a practical alternative to widely used open-ended ethnicity questions. It may reduce risk of misinterpretation of ethnicity by respondents, simplify analysis, and improve the accuracy of ethnicity measurement., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2014
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