RELIABILITY OF INFORMATION ON CHRONIC DISEASE RISK-FACTORS COLLECTED IN THE MISSOURI BEHAVIORAL RISK FACTOR SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM

The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is widely used by state health agencies to measure the prevalence of chronic disease risk factors. We completed a test-retest study to assess the reliabili ty of the Missouri Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. We cond ucted telephone reinterviews for 222 respondents of completed Behavior al Risk Factor Surveillance System interviews from March and April 199 3. The second interview was completed between 6 and 30 days after the first interview. Agreement was high for sociodemographic variables (ka ppa values from 0.85 to 1.00). Reliability of information on chronic c onditions and risk factors was also high, with kappa values from 0.82 for hypertension to 1.00 for current smoking status. Regarding cancer screening practices, reliability was lower for knowledge of the prosta te specific antigen test (K = 0.21) than for women's cancer screening practices (that is, the mammogram and Papanicolaou smear). Questions o n attitudes toward environmental tobacco smoke showed lower reliabilit y than did questions on individual actions to reduce exposure to envir onmental tobacco smoke.