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Background: Epidemiological studies often rely on self-reported health problems and validation greatly improves study quality. In a study of late effects after childhood cancer, we validated self-reported cardiovascular problems by contacting general practitioners (GPs). This paper describes: (a) the feasibility of this approach; and (b) the agreement between survivor-reports and reports from their GP. Methods: The Swiss Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (SCCSS) contacts all childhood cancer survivors registered in the Swiss Childhood Cancer Registry since 1976 who survived at least 5 years from cancer diagnosis. We validated answers of all survivors who reported a cardiovascular problem in the questionnaire. Reported cardiovascular problems were hypertension, arrhythmia, congestive heart failure, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, stroke, thrombosis, and valvular problems. In the questionnaire, we further asked survivors to provide a valid address of their GP and a consent for contact. We sent case-report forms to survivors' GPs and requested information on cardiovascular diagnoses of their patients. To determine agreement between information reported by survivors and GPs, we calculated Cohen's kappa (κ) coefficients for each category of cardiovascular problems. Results: We used questionnaires from 2172 respondents of the SCCSS. Of 290 survivors (13% of 2172) who reported cardiovascular problems, 166 gave consent to contact their GP and provided a valid address. Of those, 135 GPs (81%) replied, and 128 returned the completed case-report form. Survivor-reports were confirmed by 54/128 GPs (42%). Of the 54 GPs, 36 (28% of 128) confirmed the problems as reported by the survivors; 11 (9% of 128) confirmed the reported problem(s) and gave additional information on more cardiovascular outcomes; and seven GPs (5% of 128) confirmed some, but not all cardiovascular problems. Agreement between GPs and survivors was good for stroke (κ = 0.79), moderate for hypertension (κ = 0.51), arrhythmias (κ = 0.41), valvular problems (κ = 0.41) and thrombosis (κ = 0.56), and poor for coronary heart disease (κ = 0.15) and heart failure (κ = 0.32). Conclusions: Despite excellent GP compliance, it was found unfeasible to validate self-reported cardiovascular problems via GPs because they do not serve as gatekeepers in the Swiss health care system. It is thus necessary to develop other validation methods to improve the quality of patient-reported outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The ethnobotanical analysis of two bordering areas allows for the in-depth understanding of the dynamics of Local Ecological Knowledge, which mirrors the naturalistic, historical, and sociopolitical features of each area. As part of the Interreg Italy-Switzerland B-ICE&Heritage and GEMME projects, this work is an ethnobotanical comparative study of two neighboring Alpine territories: Valmalenco (Italy) and Valposchiavo (Switzerland). Methods: A total of 471 informants were interviewed on different fields of use (medicinal, food, veterinary, etc.). All data were organized in Excel™ spreadsheets. Informant Consensus Factor was calculated for the pathologies reported. Jaccard's similarity indices were calculated to compare the Valmalenco and Valposchiavo areas. Subsequently, another comparison between Valmalenco/Valposchiavo and Italian/Swiss Alpine neighboring areas was carried out. Results: The number of taxa for Valmalenco was 227 (77 families) and 226 in Valposchiavo (65). Out of the 10 most cited species, 7 were mentioned in both. Arnica montana L. was the most cited in Valmalenco, and Sambucus nigra L. in Valposchiavo. The 5 most cited families were the same. Regarding the medicinal and food fields, the similarity indices were fairly low (0.31 and 0.34 for the species; 0.22 and 0.31 for the uses). Concerning the comparison with Italian and Swiss Alps, similarity values were slightly higher with Italy (Valmalenco food species: 0.38 with Italy and 0.26 with Switzerland, medicinal: 0.26 IT and 0.14 SW; Valposchiavo food species: 0.36 with IT and 0.26 with SW, medicinal: 0.21 IT and 0.14 SW). Conclusion: Although Valmalenco and Valposchiavo partly share natural environment, language, history, and culture, they had low similarity indices. They both seemed to have more similarities with Italy than Switzerland, maintaining low values with the surrounding territories too. They showed a common core of Local Ecological Knowledge with several divergent branches possibly due to pivotal historical happenings, as well as more modern external influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]