title: Validity of self-reporting of episodes of external genital warts.
abstract: To determine whether men are able to self-diagnose external genital warts (EGWs), we studied data from 1115 men with and without human immunodeficiency virus infection. Men were largely unable to accurately assess the presence of EGWs. Self-reporting of EGWs was not a sensitive tool; only 38% of men who had EGWs diagnosed by a trained examiner who used bright light and visual inspection also reported having them. When we controlled for other covariates in a multivariate model, men who had EGWs diagnosed by an examiner were 14 times less likely to show concordance between examiner findings and self-report than were men who did not have EGWs diagnosed by an examiner (odds ratio, 0.07; 95% confidence interval, 0.06-0.09). Self-diagnosis and self-assessment may not accurately reflect the presence of EGWs, and self-diagnosis should not be used in place of an examiner's findings for epidemiologic studies that seek to determine the cause of disease.
authors.affiliation: Division of Primary Care, School of Nursing, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA. dwiley@ucla.edu
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Wiley
authors.forename: Stella
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grosser
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Barbara R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Visscher
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Beutner
authors.forename: Steffanie A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Strathdee
authors.forename: Bridget
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Calhoun
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Palella
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Detels
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D003218:Condylomata Acuminata / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013223:Statistics as Topic