New report assesses measurement error in personal exposures to outdoor air pollution

HEI has published a new Research Report, Investigating the Consequences of Measurement Error of Gradually More Sophisticated Long-Term Personal Exposure Models in Assessing Health Effects: The London Study (MELONS). This study, led by Klea Katsouyanni at Imperial College London, evaluated whether detailed estimates of long-term, personal exposures to outdoor air pollution yield better estimates of the health effects of exposure than less detailed approaches.

Here are the key findings from the report:

• The investigators identified measurement errors between exposures to outdoor air pollution estimated through personal exposure measurement campaigns and exposures estimated from other common assessment approaches.
• They evaluated the effects of exposure measurement error on health outcomes estimated through simulation studies and in epidemiological analyses with a cohort of residents in London, UK.
• The study found that exposure measurement error can lead to substantially biased health effect estimates, likely leading to underestimated or statistically insignificant results. In rare cases where validation datasets exist, however, approaches are available to correct for such errors.

Read the report