Validation of self-reported history of acute myocardial infarction: experience of the Minnesota Heart Survey Registry.
Accurate separation of new cases of acute myocardial infarction from prevalent cases is critical for assessing trends in morbidity in population-based studies. This report presents data on the validity of self-reported history of previous acute myocardial infarction among 3,703 patients admitted to a coronary care unit with suspicion of acute myocardial infarction. We substantiated the history of a prior event for 60% of those who reported one (629 of 1,053) and found 40% to be false-positive histories. Much of the false-positive reporting was related to previous cardiac hospitalizations, predominantly (40%) for unstable angina.
Rosamond
W D
WD
Department of Epidemiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599-7400.
Sprafka
J M
JM
McGovern
P G
PG
Nelson
M
M
Luepker
R V
RV
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008910:Minnesota / Q000453:epidemiology; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012008:Recurrence; D012042:Registries; D015203:Reproducibility of Results