Family history of cancer provided by hospital controls was satisfactorily reliable.
OBJECTIVE
Our aim was to investigate the reliability of the information on family history of cancer in first-degree relatives in a hospital-based case-control study.


METHODS
We re-interviewed at home 294 controls of an Italian hospital-based case-control study on digestive tract neoplasms using the same questionnaire and compared the responses reported by these patients in the two settings.


RESULTS
A satisfactory agreement between the two interviews was reported for family history of any cancer (kappa=0.7) and of cancers of the digestive tract (kappa=0.8). The agreement was apparently higher for esophageal and stomach cancers (kappa>0.8) than for intestinal cancers (kappa=0.6) and lower for lung cancer (kappa=0.5). We found a systematic tendency to report a history of cancer more frequently in the hospital setting than in the home setting.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study showed a good reliability of data on family history of all cancers, including cancers of the digestive tract, provided by hospital controls through a structured interview-administered questionnaire. It suggests, moreover, that controls in the hospital setting tend to recall more often, and presumably more completely, a family history of cancer.
Bravi
Francesca
F
Laboratorio di Epidemiologia, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri", Via Eritrea 62, 20157 Milan, Italy. bravi@marionegri.it
Bosetti
Cristina
C
Negri
Eva
E
Lagiou
Pagona
P
La Vecchia
Carlo
C
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004067:Digestive System Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006753:Hospital Records; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007558:Italy; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D008487:Medical History Taking; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D018579:Patient Selection; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires