Abstract

Self-reported distances to industrial sources have been used in epidemiology as proxies for exposure to environmental hazards and indicators of awareness and perception of sources. Unconventional oil and gas development (UOG) emits pollutants and has been associated with adverse health outcomes. We compared self-reported distance to the nearest UOG well to the geographic information system-calculated distance for 303 Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia residents using Cohen’s Weighted Kappa. Agreement was low (Kappa = 0.18), and self-reports by Ohioans (39% accuracy) were more accurate than West Virginians (22%) or Pennsylvanians (13%, both p < 0.05). Of the demographic characteristics studied, only educational attainment was related to reporting accuracy; residents with 12–16 years of education were more accurate (31.3% of group) than those with <12 or >16 years (both 16.7%). Understanding differences between objective and subjective measures of UOG proximity could inform studies of perceived exposures or risks and may also be relevant to adverse health effects.

Impact

We compared objective and self-reported measures of distance to the nearest UOG well for 303 Appalachian Basin residents. We found that residents’ self-reported distance to the nearest UOG well had limited agreement with the true calculated distance category. Our results can be used to inform the collection and contextualize the use of self-reported data in communities exposed to UOGD. Self-reported metrics can be used in conjunction with objective assessments and can be informative regarding how potentially exposed populations perceive environmental exposures or risks and could provide insights into awareness of distance-related policies, such as setbacks.

中文翻译：

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宾夕法尼亚州、俄亥俄州和西弗吉尼亚州居民自我报告的最近非常规油气井距离的准确性以及对暴露评估的影响

摘要

自我报告的与工业源的距离已在流行病学中用作暴露于环境危害的替代指标以及对源的认识和感知的指标。非常规石油和天然气开发 (UOG) 会排放污染物，并与不良健康后果相关。我们将 303 名宾夕法尼亚州、俄亥俄州和西弗吉尼亚州居民的自我报告的到最近 UOG 井的距离与地理信息系统使用 Cohen 加权 Kappa 计算的距离进行了比较。一致性较低（Kappa = 0.18），俄亥俄州人的自我报告（准确率 39%）比西弗吉尼亚州人（22%）或宾夕法尼亚州人（13%，均p  < 0.05）更准确。在所研究的人口特征中，只有教育程度与报告准确性有关；受过 12-16 年教育的居民（占该组的 31.3%）比那些<12 岁或>16 岁的居民（均为 16.7%）更准确。了解 UOG 接近度的客观和主观测量之间的差异可以为感知暴露或风险的研究提供信息，也可能与不良健康影响相关。

影响

我们比较了 303 名阿巴拉契亚盆地居民到最近 UOG 井的客观距离和自我报告的距离测量值。我们发现居民自我报告的到最近 UOG 井的距离与真实计算的距离类别的一致性有限。我们的结果可用于为暴露于 UOGD 的社区中的自我报告数据的收集和使用提供信息。自我报告的指标可以与客观评估结合使用，可以提供有关潜在暴露人群如何感知环境暴露或风险的信息，并可以提供对与距离相关的政策（例如挫折）的认识的见解。