The Reliability of Self-Reported Alcohol Consumption in the Remote Past

Abstract

We examined the reliability of self-reported alcohol consumption in past age periods of women’s lives. As part of a case-control study of breast cancer conducted in Massachusetts and Wisconsin in 1988–1991, the same questionnaire was administered for a second time to 211 controls (mean age = 54 years) after an interval of 6–12 months. The Spearman correlation coefficients between the average number of grams of alcohol consumed daily reported in the two interviews, by age period of consumption, were: 16–19 years τ = 0.81; 20–29 years, τ = 0.84; 30–39 years, τ= 0.75; and for recent consumption, τ = 0.77. Self-reported alcohol consumption throughout adult life was reported with precision sion sufficient to make the ranking of subjects' intake consistent between interviews. (Epidemiology 1992;3:535–539)