ADULT FEMALE TWINS RECALL OF CHILDHOOD SOCIAL-CLASS AND FATHERS EDUCATION - A VALIDATION-STUDY FOR PUBLIC-HEALTH RESEARCH

To assess recall of childhood socioeconomic position for public health research, the authors conducted a cross-sectional study of 352 adult women twin pairs enrolled in Examination II of the Kaiser Permanente W omen Twins Study carried out in 1989-1990 in Oakland, California. Amon g twin pairs, 91% (95% confidence interval (CI) 89-94%) agreed on thei r father's educational level and 81% (95% CI 77-85%) on their childhoo d social class. Recall did not differ by adult socioeconomic position, zygosity, race/ethnicity, or age. Thus, epidemiologic studies can val idly use retrospective data on childhood socioeconomic position to stu dy its relation to adult health status.