Time-dependent recordkeeping fatigue among youth completing health diaries of unintentional injuries

Increasingly, investigators are asking youth to self-report daily activity patterns and health outcomes in diary studies. This study assesses recordkeeping fatigue with respect to data quality and event reporting among youth participating in a health diary study. Unintentional injury data were collected during a 13-week longitudinal diary study of Ohio youth exposed to agricultural hazards. Two analyses were conducted using data from 2000. Analysis 1 examined trends in discernable recordkeeping errors (DREs) over the course of follow-up. Analysis 2 assessed trends in injury reporting over follow-up. The percentage of items containing a DRE showed a slight, non-significant decline throughout follow-up. Injury reporting declined significantly (p < 0.001) over follow-up. There was no compelling evidence of respondent fatigue with respect to DREs. The observed decline in injury reporting is problematic because estimates of youth injury incidence in health diary studies may vary depending upon the length of the follow-up period.