Self-reported medical history was generally accurate among Japanese workplace population.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the validity of self-reported medical history of several diseases among the Japanese population, and to clarify to what extent the self-reported year of diagnosis for chronic diseases is different from the physician's reports.


METHODS
Subjects were 8,947 persons who responded to questions about medical history in a self-administered questionnaire. Of them, 854 subjects reported one or more medical histories and gave permission to contact their physician. The physicians were then requested to provide information on 809 subjects. Valid responses of 714 subjects were collected. We compared the self-reported medical histories with those reported by the physician.


RESULTS
Of 15 persons who reported myocardial infarction, 13 (87%) were confirmed. Angina pectoris was verified in eight out of the 11 (73%). The confirmation proportions of hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and hyperuricemia were 97%, 96%, 95%, and 95%, respectively. The self-reported year of diagnosis was 1.70-2.49 years earlier than the physician-reported year for chronic diseases. Agreement between the self-reported and the physician-reported years was higher, the more recent the self-reported year was.


CONCLUSIONS
Self-reported medical histories were generally accurate, especially for diseases with clear diagnostic criteria. However, investigators should be aware of the errors in reporting the year of diagnosis.
Wada
Keiko
K
Department of Public Health/Health Information Dynamics, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Showa-ku, Nagoya, Japan.
Yatsuya
Hiroshi
H
Ouyang
Pei
P
Otsuka
Rei
R
Mitsuhashi
Hirotsugu
H
Takefuji
Seiko
S
Matsushita
Kunihiro
K
Sugiura
Kaichiro
K
Hotta
Yo
Y
Toyoshima
Hideaki
H
Tamakoshi
Koji
K
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000787:Angina Pectoris / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012650:Self Disclosure; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017132:Workplace