Patient-doctor Concordance in Elderly Women’s Self-reported Health and Medical Records

M. Ockander; M. Hjerppe; T. Timpka

doi:10.1055/s-0038-1634295

Methods of Information in Medicine, Table of Contents

Methods Inf Med 2002; 41(02): 119-124
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634295

Original Article

Schattauer GmbH

Patient-doctor Concordance in Elderly Women’s Self-reported Health and Medical Records

Authors

M. Ockander

¹Department of Social Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Linköping University, Sweden
M. Hjerppe

¹Department of Social Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Linköping University, Sweden
T. Timpka

¹Department of Social Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Linköping University, Sweden

Abstract

Summary

Objectives: To compare the chronic diseases mentioned by elderly women in an interview study with those documented in their respective medical records.

Methods: The prevalence of positive diagnoses, overall agreement, and the kappa-coefficient were calculated for each group of diagnoses.

Results: The lowest overall agreement was observed for psychiatric diseases, followed by diseases of the gastrointestinal system. Poor chance-adjusted agreement was found concerning diseases of the gastrointestinal system and diseases of the skin.

Conclusions: The results suggest that a main reason for discordance was that the elderly women feared »losing face« by reporting some diseases.

Keywords

Diagnosis - women - medical records - patients - medical decision making

Full Text

References

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