Context: Retrospective exposure assessment in population-based case-control studies poses a major challenge
due to the wide range of occupations and industries involved. The FINJEM is a generic job-exposure
matrix developed in Finland which represents a potentially cost effective exposure assessment tool.
While FINJEM has been used in several studies outside Finland, little is known of its applicability in other countries.
Methods: We compared prevalence and intensity of exposure in FINJEM with a job-exposure matrix developed
from expert assessments of occupational histories obtained in a population-based case-control study in
Montreal. Agreement for prevalence of exposure was measured by weighted kappa coefficients
between prevalence categories. Agreement for exposure intensity was measured by Spearman
correlation coefficients between cells with non-null exposure.
Results: The comparison involved 27 chemicals, the time period 1945-1995, and included 4,743 jobs initially
assessed by the Montreal experts. 4,293 combinations of agent, occupational title, and period were
available for comparison of prevalence. Agent-specific prevalence was consistently higher in the
Montreal JEM (median difference 1.7%). Agent-specific kappas between prevalence categories varied
from 0.89 (welding fumes) to 0.07 (flour dust). The comparison of exposure levels involved 14 agents
and 198 cells with non-null exposure in both sources. Agent-specific Spearman correlation varied from
0.89 (flour dust) to -0.35 (Benzo[a]pyrene).
Conclusion: Our observations suggest that information concerning several agents (e.g. metals, welding fumes) can be successfully transported from Finland to Canada and probably other countries. However, for other agents there was considerable disagreement and hence transportability of FINJEM cannot be assumed
by default.This is the author's peer-reviewed final manuscript, as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. and can be found at: http://oem.bmj.com/.Keywords: Validity and Reliability, Job-exposure matrix, Case-Control Study, Occupational exposure assessmentKeywords: Validity and Reliability, Job-exposure matrix, Case-Control Study, Occupational exposure assessmen
