Background

This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the self-administered questionnaire for Korean radiation workers.

Methods

From May 24, 2016, to June 30, 2017, 20,608 participants completed the questionnaire, providing information on sociodemographics, lifestyle, work history and practices, medical radiation exposure, and medical history, which was linked to the National Dose Registry and the National Cancer Registry. The validity of the questionnaire was evaluated using the responses of 20,608 workers, and reliability was evaluated using the responses of 3043 workers who responded to the survey twice.

Results

Responses concerning demographic characteristics and lifestyle showed reliability with a moderate-to-high agreement (kappa: 0.43–0.99), whereas responses concerning occupation and medical radiation exposure had a wide range of agreement (kappa: 0.05–0.95), possibly owing to temporal variability during employment. Regarding validity, responses to the question about the first year of employment had an excellent agreement with the national registry (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.9); however, responses on cancer history had a wide range of agreement (kappa: 0.22–0.85).

Conclusion

Although the reliability and validity of the questionnaire were not distinguished by demographic characteristics, they tended to be low among participants whose occupational radiation exposure was minimal. Overall, the information collected can be reliable for epidemiological studies; however, caution must be exercised when using information such as medical exposure and work practices, which are prone to temporal variability.

中文翻译：

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全国性调查的可靠性和有效性（韩国辐射工作者研究）

背景

本研究旨在评估韩国放射工作者自填问卷的信度和效度。

方法

从 2016 年 5 月 24 日到 2017 年 6 月 30 日，20,608 名参与者完成了问卷，提供了与国家剂量登记和国家癌症相关的社会人口学、生活方式、工作历史和实践、医疗辐射暴露和病史等信息注册表。问卷的有效性通过 20,608 名工人的回答来评估，而可靠性则使用 3043 名工人的回答来评估，这些工人对调查做出了两次回应。

结果

关于人口特征和生活方式的反应显示出具有中高一致性的可靠性（kappa：0.43-0.99），而关于职业和医疗辐射暴露的反应具有广泛的一致性（kappa：0.05-0.95），可能是由于时间就业期间的可变性。关于有效性，对就业第一年问题的回答与国家登记处非常一致（组内相关系数 = 0.9）；然而，对癌症病史的反应具有广泛的一致性（kappa：0.22-0.85）。

结论

尽管问卷的信度和效度没有按人口统计学特征区分，但在职业辐射暴露最小的参与者中往往较低。总体而言，收集到的信息对于流行病学研究是可靠的；但是，在使用容易随时间变化的医疗暴露和工作实践等信息时，必须谨慎行事。