title: The validity of self-reported information about hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in a population-based survey: the Tromsø Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the validity of self-reported information about hypertensive disorders in previous pregnancies among women participating in the fourth survey of the Tromsø Study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective cohort study with case-control design.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parous women participating in the fourth survey of the Tromsø Study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medical records including partograms of 200 randomly selected women who had answered positively to whether they had hypertension and/or proteinuria during one or more of their previous pregnancies (cases) and 200 women who had answered negatively (controls) were studied. The cases and controls were matched for age. The investigators were blinded to the allocation of cases and controls until data collection was finished.
  
  
  METHODS
  Self-reported and actual prevalence of hypertensive pregnancy disorders and predictive value of self-reported hypertension and/or proteinuria in previous pregnancies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Clinical data were missing for 23.5% (94/400) of the participants (50 cases and 44 controls). A total of 80% (120/150) of cases and 57.1% (89/156) of controls had answered the question on whether or not they had high blood pressure and/or proteinuria during their pregnancies correctly (positive predictive value 0.800; negative predictive value 0.571). The proportion of false-positive cases declined with increasing age while the proportion of false-negative controls increased until 55 years of age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found good concordance between self-reported hypertension and/or proteinuria during previous pregnancies and actual clinical findings among the cases. However, there was a tendency towards under-reporting among controls.
authors.affiliation: Women's Health and Perinatology Research Group, Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.
authors.forename: Marit
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Falkegård
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schirmer
authors.forename: Maja-Lisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Løchen
authors.forename: Pål
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Øian
authors.forename: Ganesh
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Acharya
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D020073:Gravidity; D006801:Humans; D046110:Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D012016:Reference Values; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D057566:Self Report; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy; gestational hypertension; preeclampsia; proteinuria; self-reported information; validity