1. Self-reported medication use validated through record linkage to national prescribing data.
- Author
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Hafferty JD, Campbell AI, Navrady LB, Adams MJ, MacIntyre D, Lawrie SM, Nicodemus K, Porteous DJ, and McIntosh AM
- Subjects
- Adult, Age Distribution, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Antidepressive Agents classification, Cohort Studies, Databases, Factual, Drug Prescriptions, Female, Humans, Logistic Models, Male, Middle Aged, Prescription Drugs classification, Reproducibility of Results, Scotland epidemiology, Self Report, Treatment Outcome, Young Adult, Antidepressive Agents therapeutic use, Mental Disorders drug therapy, Prescription Drugs therapeutic use
- Abstract
Objectives: Researchers need to be confident about the reliability of epidemiologic studies that quantify medication use through self-report. Some evidence suggests that psychiatric medications are systemically under-reported. Modern record linkage enables validation of self-report with national prescribing data as gold standard. Here, we investigated the validity of medication self-report for multiple medication types., Study Design and Setting: Participants in the Generation Scotland population-based cohort (N = 10,244) recruited 2009-2011 self-reported regular usage of several commonly prescribed medication classes. This was matched against Scottish NHS prescriptions data using 3- and 6-month fixed time windows. Potential predictors of discordant self-report, including general intelligence and psychological distress, were studied via multivariable logistic regression., Results: Antidepressants self-report showed very good agreement (κ = 0.85, [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.84-0.87]), comparable to antihypertensives (κ = 0.90 [CI 0.89-0.91]). Self-report of mood stabilizers showed moderate-poor agreement (κ = 0.42 [CI 0.33-0.50]). Relevant past medical history was the strongest predictor of self-report sensitivity, whereas general intelligence was not predictive., Conclusion: In this large population-based study, we found self-report validity varied among medication classes, with no simple relationship between psychiatric medication and under-reporting. History of indicated illness predicted more accurate self-report, for both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric medications. Although other patient-level factors influenced self-report for some medications, none predicted greater accuracy across all medications studied., (Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2018
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