Good agreement between physician and self-reported hormone therapy data in a case-control study
S Kropp1, T Terboven, J Hedicke
1Department of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany. s.kropp@dkfz.de
Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
|November 14, 2007
Summary
Self-reported postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) use accurately reflects physician records, showing good agreement for ever/never use and duration. This validates patient recall for HT use in epidemiological studies.
Area of Science:
- Reproductive Medicine
- Epidemiology
- Pharmacovigilance
Background:
- Accurate assessment of postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) use is crucial for understanding its effects on breast cancer risk.
- Validation studies are essential to confirm the reliability of self-reported data against objective sources like prescription records.
Purpose of the Study:
- To validate self-reported postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) use against physician prescription data in a population-based case-control study.
- To assess the agreement between patient recall and medical records for various aspects of HT use, including type, duration, and timing.
Main Methods:
- A validation sub-study was conducted within a population-based case-control study in Germany (2002-2005).
- 224 cases and 225 controls were randomly selected and stratified by region, age, and hormone use.
- Comparison involved matching self-reported HT data with gynecologists' prescription records.
Main Results:
- High agreement was observed for ever/never HT use (88.2%) and by specific types of HT (80.3%-90.5%).
- Intraclass correlation coefficients indicated high reliability for duration of use (0.82) and age at first/last use (0.88-0.98).
- Agreement on exact brand names was moderate (50.2% perfect, 29.3% partial), but overall agreement was not influenced by disease status.
Conclusions:
- Self-reported postmenopausal hormone therapy (HT) data demonstrated substantial concordance with physician prescription records.
- The findings support the use of self-reported HT information in epidemiological research, particularly for assessing general use and duration.
- High reliability in reporting HT use enhances the validity of studies investigating its association with health outcomes like breast cancer.
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