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Validation of a home safety questionnaire used in a series of case-control studies

Watson, Michael; Benford, Penny; Coupland, Carol; Clacy, Rose; Hindmarch, Paul; Majsak-Newman, Gosia; Deave, Toity; Kendrick, Denise

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Authors

Michael Watson

Penny Benford

Carol Coupland

Rose Clacy

Paul Hindmarch

Gosia Majsak-Newman

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Toity Deave Toity.Deave@uwe.ac.uk
Associate Professor in Child & Family Health

Denise Kendrick



Abstract

© 2014 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved. Conclusions This study found that the validity of selfreports varied with safety practice. Questions with a high specificity will be useful for practitioners for identifying households who may benefit from home safety interventions and will be useful for researchers as measures of exposures or outcomes.Objective To measure the validity of safety behaviours, safety equipment use and hazards reported on a questionnaire by parents/carers with children aged under 5 years participating in a series of home safety casecontrol studies.Methods The questionnaire measured safety behaviours, safety equipment use and hazards being used as exposures in five case-control studies. Responses to questions were compared with observations made during a home visit. The researchers making observations were blind to questionnaire responses.Results In total, 162 families participated in the study. Overall agreement between reported and observed values of the safety practices ranged from 48.5% to 97.3%. Only 3 safety practices (stair gate at the top of stairs, stair gate at the bottom of stairs, stairs are carpeted) had substantial agreement based on the κ statistic (k=0.65, 0.72, 0.74, respectively). Sensitivity was high (≥70%) for 19 of the 30 safety practices, and specificity was high (≥70%) for 20 of the 30 practices. Overall for 24 safety practices, a higher proportion of respondents over-reported than under-reported safe practice (negative predictive value>positive predictive value). For six safety practices, a higher proportion of respondents under-reported than over-reported safe practice (negative predictive value

Citation

Watson, M., Benford, P., Coupland, C., Clacy, R., Hindmarch, P., Majsak-Newman, G., …Kendrick, D. (2014). Validation of a home safety questionnaire used in a series of case-control studies. Injury Prevention, 20(5), 336-342. https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2013-041006

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jan 1, 2014
Deposit Date Jan 12, 2015
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Injury Prevention
Print ISSN 1353-8047
Electronic ISSN 1475-5785
Publisher BMJ Publishing Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 20
Issue 5
Pages 336-342
DOI https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2013-041006
Keywords home safety, questionnaire, case-control
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/811487
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2013-041006

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