Volunteers in the sensitive group were selected on the basis of a self-report of being sensitive to EMFs, particularly those produced by mobile communication handsets and base stations.
Pain and functional limitation were evaluated on a self report basis, which is highly subjective.
On the basis of self report data, only a small number of participants (42 for primary care management plus TENS, 29 for primary care management only) reported performing exercises and using the TENS machine according to our a priori defined recommendations of application frequency (at least four times a week for a period of at least four weeks).
Primarily, the prevalence of physician-diagnosed GERD, heartburn symptoms, migraine and other headaches were made on the basis of a patient self-reporting diagnoses received by their doctor.
Most studies measured exposure to smoking retrospectively on the basis of self report, and definitions of smoking status were often not clear.
The personal characteristics of doctor participants were determined on the basis of self reports of a range of characteristics (table 1).
We assessed whether baseline diabetes status (ascertained on the basis of self report or drug use, including long term use of glucose lowering drugs, or a combination of both) and serum glucose levels on admission related to death from community acquired pneumonia within the first 28, 90, and 180 days from diagnosis.
Variation on the basis of low self reported blood glucose levels could be skewed by adherent patients, who are often found to be at lower mortality risk, but we did attempt to account for this characteristic by adjusting for the number of times the finger stick tests were performed.
Country of origin was assigned on the basis of self reported ethnicity/country of origin data recorded routinely on admission to hospitals in the Auckland region.
Men who had a proxy in the last study but now live alone, or for whom no proxy interview can be obtained, will be recruited on the basis of self reports of the same measures and using the same cut-offs.
Mode of breast cancer detection was defined on the basis of self reported data.
