title: Agreement of self-reported use of menopausal hormone replacement therapy with physician reports.
abstract: There have been relatively few epidemiological studies to verify the information obtained from study participants on the use of menopausal hormone replacement therapy. We conducted this study as part of a case-control study of diet, hormone use, and endometrial cancer in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1994-1998. We compared records from 653 subjects, 30-79 years of age, with reports from their physicians on ever/never use of hormone replacement therapy and duration, type, and dose of hormone replacement therapy. A total of 88% of the interview records were in agreement with physician reports for ever/never use of hormone replacement therapy. The overall kappa value for ever/never use agreement was 0.76 (range = 0.71-0.81), and the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.64 (range = 0.57-0.70) for duration of hormone replacement therapy use, indicating good agreement; similar correlations were seen among cases and controls for overall use, as well as estrogen- or progestogen-alone use. Concordance for brand codes was observed for about 43% of the subjects. This study suggests that information obtained by interview in case-control studies provides a reasonable measure of ever use of hormone replacement therapy and duration of use. Interviews, however, do not represent a reliable source of information on brands and dosage of hormone replacement therapy preparations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: M G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Jain
authors.forename: T E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Rohan
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Howe
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000453:epidemiology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004032:Diet / Q000009:adverse effects; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000453:epidemiology; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records / Q000592:standards*; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D009864:Ontario / Q000453:epidemiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D013997:Time Factors