Validity of parental work information on the birth certificate

BMC Public Health

Table 3 Birth Certificate Compared with Interview for Maternal Occupation During First Trimester

		Women employed outside home according to both sources^a
Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) group	Number (%) misclassified as homemaker or student on vital record	Number by interview	Number by birth certificate^b	Number by both sources	Sensitivity (%) (95% CI)	Specificity (%) (95% CI)	Kappa
Management	2 (10.5)	17	19	14	82.4 (59.1 – 95.3)	97.7 (94.9 – 99.1)	0.76
Education, training, & library	4 (15.4)	22	22	19	86.4 (67.2 – 96.4)	98.6 (96.2 – 99.6)	0.85
Health diagnosing & treating practitioners	0 (0.0)	14	17	14	100 (80.7 – 100)	98.6 (96.3 – 99.7)	0.90
Health technologists & technicians	2 (16.7)	10	7	7	70.0 (38.0 – 91.7)	100 (98.7 – 100)	0.82
Health care support	4 (23.5)	12	12	10	83.3 (54.9 – 97.1)	99.1 (97.0 – 99.9)	0.82
Food preparation & serving	26 (65.0)	14	11	10	71.4 (44.6 – 90.2)	99.5 (97.8 – 99.9)	0.79
Sales & related occupations	30 (44.1)	37	37	32	86.5 (72.6 – 94.9)	97.4 (94.4 – 99.1)	0.84
Office & administrative support	21 (24.7)	63	56	49	77.8 (66.3 – 86.8)	95.9 (92.0 – 98.2)	0.76
Production occupations	6 (30.0)	14	13	12	85.7 (60.3 – 97.5)	99.5 (97.8 – 99.9)	0.88

^aMothers who were listed as homemaker, student or unemployed are excluded in these analyses. Only occupations with 10 or more workers by interview are shown in Table.
^bOne missing occupation each for health care support, sales, and office support occupations.

ISSN: 1471-2458