title: Accuracy of the Structured Medication History Assessment Tool (MedHAT) Compared with Recorded Real-Time Medication Use.
abstract: Medication histories are collected to measure drug exposure in epidemiologic studies, to identify adverse drug events and in clinical practice. The objective of this study was to compare the accuracy of a structured medication history obtained by using the Medication History Assessment Tool (MedHAT) with a medication diary in which subjects recorded real-time medication use.
  
  
  
  Prospective observational study.
  
  
  
  Outpatient research center.
  
  
  
  Sixty-seven adult healthy volunteers.
  
  
  
  Subjects were provided diaries to record the product name, dose quantity, and time that they used a prescription or nonprescription medication, supplement, or vitamin. After a minimum of 30 continuous days of diary use, a final interview was conducted, and medication history data were collected by using the MedHAT.
  
  
  
  We compared the medications reported during the interview with the medications recorded in the diary for each day to determine the accuracy of the verbal history. The primary outcome was the proportion of matches for each day for each subject. Overall accuracy for medication use for the day preceding the interview was 90%, and accuracy during the 30 days preceding the interview was 76%. Recall was higher for subjects taking prescription medications, those who had more recent medication use, older subjects, and subjects taking a higher proportion of prescription medications.
  
  
  
  The MedHAT system provided relatively high accuracy for immediate past use and for prescription medications and may offer better accuracy than other methods. Medication histories are often inaccurate, however, and may represent an important source of misclassification in epidemiologic studies. Thus medication histories alone should be used cautiously when measuring associations between drug exposure and health outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Denver Health and Hospitals, Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center, Denver, Colorado.|University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine and Section of Medical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Aurora, Colorado.
authors.forename: Kennon
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Heard
authors.affiliation: Denver Health and Hospitals, Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center, Denver, Colorado.
authors.forename: Victoria E
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Denver Health and Hospitals, Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center, Denver, Colorado.|University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine and Section of Medical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Aurora, Colorado.
authors.forename: Richard C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Dart
authors.affiliation: Denver Health and Hospitals, Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center, Denver, Colorado.
authors.forename: Jody L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Green
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D055991:Health Records, Personal; D064368:Healthy Volunteers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D059065:Medication Reconciliation / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D055553:Prescription Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011446:Prospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004366:Nonprescription Drugs; D055553:Prescription Drugs
keywords: Medication history accuracy