Tracing a Path to the Past: Exploring the Use of Commercial Credit Reporting Data to Construct Residential Histories for Epidemiologic Studies of Environmental Exposures

Abstract

Large-scale environmental epidemiologic studies often rely on exposure estimates based on linkage to residential addresses. This approach, however, is limited by the lack of residential histories typically available for study participants. Our objective was to evaluate the feasibility of using address data from LexisNexis (a division of RELX, Inc., Dayton, Ohio), a commercially available credit reporting company, to construct residential histories for participants in the California Teachers Study (CTS), a prospective cohort study initiated in 1995–1996 to study breast cancer (n = 133,479). We evaluated the degree to which LexisNexis could provide retrospective addresses prior to study enrollment, as well as the concordance with existing prospective CTS addresses ascertained at the time of the completion of 4 self-administered questionnaires. For approximately 80% of CTS participants, LexisNexis provided at least 1 retrospective address, including nearly 25,000 addresses completely encompassed by time periods prior to enrollment. This approach more than doubled the proportion of the study population for whom we had an address of residence during the childbearing years—an important window of susceptibility for breast cancer risk. While overall concordance between the prospective addresses contained in these 2 data sources was good (85%), it was diminished among black women and women under the age of 40 years.

The impact of population mobility on estimates of environmental exposure effects in a case‐control study

“…For many epidemiologists who wish to account for mobility in their analyses, the cost of collecting residential histories may be prohibitive . According to the literature, public‐record database generated residential histories are a reasonable alternative to the expensive, time consuming, and often infeasible method of constructing residential histories . Still, to our knowledge, no study has evaluated the impact of using public‐record database generated residential histories in lieu of subject‐reported addresses when estimating environmental exposure effects in a case‐control study.…”

“…In these studies, researchers account for demographic, socioeconomic, behavioral, genetic, infectious, and environmental risk factors. Recently, the relationship between exposure to environmental hazards and the health consequences of such exposures has become an area of increasing public interest . As a result, a large body of research related to this topic has burgeoned within different disciplines …”

“…Many environmental exposures of concern are difficult, if not impossible, to self‐report . However, with advancements in technology and analytic methods, particularly geographic information system (GIS) tools, researchers are able to use location data to examine the contribution of environmental exposures to disease .…”

The timing of geographic power

“…A major challenge in practice is that residential histories have not been previously collected in most epidemiologic studies. A few authors have demonstrated the feasibility of generating residential histories using public-record databases; 22,43,44 however, no one has yet evaluated the impact of using public-record database generated histories in place of subject-reported addresses to estimate the effects of exposure. Our future work is also aimed at addressing this knowledge gap.…”

Residential mobility in early childhood and the impact on misclassification in pesticide exposures

“…For example, LexisNexis® Public Records (https://www.lexisnexis.com/en-us/products/public-records.page, hereinafter referred to as LexisNexis), a commercial credit reporting company, provides all known addresses for a set of individuals upon request. Earlier studies have shown that addresses acquired from LexisNexis are useful for reconstructing residential histories for subjects in epidemiological studies with an overall match rate of ~70-85% when detailed address histories were obtained in interviews (Hurley et al, 2017;Jacquez et al, 2011;Wheeler and Wang, 2015). However, subjects from these studies were mostly middle-aged or older, and their residential mobility may differ from that of women at child-bearing age.…”