Informants' knowledge of reproductive history and estrogen replacement

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Neuroscience
• Reproductive Health

Background:

• Assessing estrogen use in older women, including those with Alzheimer's disease, is of significant interest.
• Data for Alzheimer's patients often relies on informant recall, necessitating an understanding of informant knowledge.
• The reliability of reproductive history and estrogen use data from informants requires careful evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the accuracy of informant-reported reproductive history in Alzheimer's disease patients.
• To determine the extent of knowledge informants possess regarding reproductive events and estrogen use.
• To identify factors influencing informant accuracy and the most reliable informant types.

Main Methods:

• Compared reproductive history data from 40 cognitively healthy older women with their designated informants.
• Modeled informant responses to assess accuracy across various reproductive history aspects.
• Demographics of informants for healthy controls were matched to those of informants for Alzheimer's patients.

Main Results:

• Informant-reported reproductive history was generally accurate when the informant had personal knowledge.
• Significant variation in accuracy was observed across different reproductive history details (e.g., high accuracy for live births, hysterectomy; lower for menarche, menopause).
• Daughters emerged as the most likely and accurate informants; 30% of subjects lacked an informant with personal knowledge.

Conclusions:

• Informant-derived reproductive history data for Alzheimer's disease patients is variably accurate.
• The 30% of patients without a knowledgeable informant presents a significant challenge for data collection in relevant research.
• Future studies should consider informant selection strategies and potential biases in reproductive health data.