Self-reported medication use validated through record linkage to national prescribing data.

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 gener

SUBMITTER: Hafferty JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5808931 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature