The reliability of patient-reported pregnancy outcome data

Pregnancy and neonatal outcome information is frequently used in disease management to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of prenatal interventions and for other research and reporting activities. The purpose of this study was to determine if a telephone interview process is a reliable methodology for collecting pregnancy outcomes. High-risk patients from a large maternal-fetal medicine practice who received outpatient preterm labor management services from January 1996 to June 2001 were identified. Patient-reported pregnancy outcome data for 285 mothers and 478 infants were collected via a telephone interview by a perinatal nurse and compared to pregnancy outcome data abstracted from the maternal and infant hospital records. Overall, concordance and/or Kappa coefficients between maternal report and the medical record were high for delivery date (96.4%), birth weight within 100 grams (88.9%), Cesarean delivery (99.0%, Kappa = 0.98), and high-level nursery admission (91.2%, Kappa = 0.82). Both singleton and multiple gestation types accurately reported pregnancy outcome information. A telephone interview with a skilled nurse can be a reliable methodology for collection of valuable clinical and research data related to pregnancy outcome. Data collected in this manner and maintained in a database may be used with a high level of confidence by health care providers, payers, and researchers.