IS THERE CONSISTENCY IN SELF-REPORTS OF INDOOR WOOD SMOKE EXPOSURE?

Example Questions	r	ICC
Over the past week when you had wood burning in the stove/ fireplace the door/front of the stove / fireplace was open?	.80	.74
Typically it is your job to start the wood fire in the stove / fireplace?	.78	.68
When wood is burning it is your job to look after the stove/ fireplace?	.78	.66
On average over the past week how many hours were you in the room where wood was burning	.49	.48
Over the past week when wood was burning in the stove/ fireplace I could smell smoke in the house?	.35	.31
Over the past week when you had wood burning in the stove/ fireplace the windows were open?	.29	.30

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the consistency in the self-reports of individuals exposed to wood smoke in the home using the 12 questions about the magnitude of Indoor Wood Smoke (IWS) exposure. Rationale: Wood burning in the home for cooking and heat has increased in the United States.  Exposure to IWS is being investigated for the degree of epigenetic changes related to an individual's symptom expression and acceleration of lung decline. Often these types of exposures are assessed by self-reporting, requiring consistency in questions used for gathering such data. Identifying gaps in consistency will be important for future epigenetic research as well as targeted care treatments. It is important to have questions that allows for standardized and consistent self-reporting for individuals exposed.  Method: There were two reporting periods that administered the IWS exposure questions collected seven days apart. The sample consisted of 30 individuals in the Albuquerque, NM area associated with the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI) that were identified as burning wood indoors for heat or cooking daily or almost daily and consented to particle monitoring over a seven-day period during the winter months of 2013-2014. Most homes were large (5 rooms or more 83%) with 1 or 2 people as continuous residence (60%) and all households reported using their wood stove at least weekly to heat their home. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, nonparametric test retest and interclass (ICC) correlation on the pre and post MIWSI questions. Results: The majority of participants were in good health (70%), less than half (43%) worked full time and currently smoked cigarettes (23%) or cigars (11%). Over half of the questions were consistent across time, with test-retest correlations ranging from .80 to .29 and the ICC values very similar (.74 to .30). Question With the least consistency were those that asked about smelling smoke and ventilation. Implications: These findings provide evidence that there is some consistency in self-reporting over time but some questions did not have any consistency. Further analysis is needed as it is unclear if the questions were interpreted differently for each reporting period or if there were considerable exposures differences between the seven days.