VALIDATION OF A SELF-ADMINISTERED LEAD-EXPOSURE QUESTIONNAIRE AMONG SUBURBAN TEENAGERS

Teenagers represent a unique population in which to evaluate lead expo sure. A self-administered questionnaire was developed to evaluate the current and historic lead exposures of teenagers. This work evaluates the exposure questionnaire for both its ability to predict lead exposu re and the accuracy of the teenage respondents. Subjects received the survey at school and were instructed to get assistance from their pare nts in questionnaire completion. Environmental samples (dust, soil, an d water) were collected from 30 suburban Boston homes to evaluate the questionnaire's predictiveness. To evaluate the accuracy of subjects' responses, independent information about housing was obtained. The que stionnaire was effective in identifying predictors of dust and soil le ad levels, but not for water lead levels. Fine dust lead loading (<150 mu m) varied significantly among the six housing age categories (pre- 1940, 1940-1949, 1950-1959, 1960-1969, 1970-1979, and >1979) and traff ic levels. Fine dust lead concentrations varied significantly with dec ade of housing construction. Mean soil lead levels varied significantl y among housing age categories, traffic levels, and exterior construct ion materials. For the important predictors, there was excellent agree ment between the teenagers' self-report and confirmatory information. For housing age categories, the observed agreement was 69%; for traffi c level, the observed agreement was 88%. These results illustrate that questionnaires continue to be useful in evaluating home lead levels e ven in suburban homes and that teenagers are accurate respondents. (C) 1997 Academic Press.