An analysis of the accuracy of retrospective birth location recall using sibling data
Abstract Many surveys ask participants to retrospectively record their location of birth. This paper examines the accuracy of such data in the UK Biobank using a sample of full siblings. Comparison of reported birth locations for siblings with different age gaps allows us to estimate the probabiliti...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46781-z |
| _version_ | 1797233485607337984 |
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| author | Stephanie von Hinke Nicolai Vitt |
| author_facet | Stephanie von Hinke Nicolai Vitt |
| author_sort | Stephanie von Hinke |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Many surveys ask participants to retrospectively record their location of birth. This paper examines the accuracy of such data in the UK Biobank using a sample of full siblings. Comparison of reported birth locations for siblings with different age gaps allows us to estimate the probabilities of household moves and of misreported birth locations. Our first contribution is to show that there are inaccuracies in retrospective birth location data, showing a sizeable probability of misreporting, with 28% of birth coordinates, 16% of local districts and 6% of counties of birth being incorrectly reported. Our second contribution is to show that such error can lead to substantial attenuation bias when investigating the impacts of location-based exposures, especially when there is little spatial correlation and limited time variation in the exposure variable. Sibling fixed effect models are shown to be particularly vulnerable to the attenuation bias. Our third contribution is to highlight possible solutions to the attenuation bias and sensitivity analyses to the reporting error. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T16:16:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c2008142ece14b4cb1212384734da147 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T16:16:55Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-c2008142ece14b4cb1212384734da1472024-03-31T11:24:40ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232024-03-0115111310.1038/s41467-024-46781-zAn analysis of the accuracy of retrospective birth location recall using sibling dataStephanie von Hinke0Nicolai Vitt1School of Economics, University of BristolSchool of Economics, University of BristolAbstract Many surveys ask participants to retrospectively record their location of birth. This paper examines the accuracy of such data in the UK Biobank using a sample of full siblings. Comparison of reported birth locations for siblings with different age gaps allows us to estimate the probabilities of household moves and of misreported birth locations. Our first contribution is to show that there are inaccuracies in retrospective birth location data, showing a sizeable probability of misreporting, with 28% of birth coordinates, 16% of local districts and 6% of counties of birth being incorrectly reported. Our second contribution is to show that such error can lead to substantial attenuation bias when investigating the impacts of location-based exposures, especially when there is little spatial correlation and limited time variation in the exposure variable. Sibling fixed effect models are shown to be particularly vulnerable to the attenuation bias. Our third contribution is to highlight possible solutions to the attenuation bias and sensitivity analyses to the reporting error.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46781-z |
| spellingShingle | Stephanie von Hinke Nicolai Vitt An analysis of the accuracy of retrospective birth location recall using sibling data Nature Communications |
| title | An analysis of the accuracy of retrospective birth location recall using sibling data |
| title_full | An analysis of the accuracy of retrospective birth location recall using sibling data |
| title_fullStr | An analysis of the accuracy of retrospective birth location recall using sibling data |
| title_full_unstemmed | An analysis of the accuracy of retrospective birth location recall using sibling data |
| title_short | An analysis of the accuracy of retrospective birth location recall using sibling data |
| title_sort | analysis of the accuracy of retrospective birth location recall using sibling data |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46781-z |
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