Self-reported medication use among coronary heart disease patients showed high validity compared with dispensing data

ObjectiveTo validate self-reported use of medications for secondary prevention coronary heart disease (CHD) in a population-based health study by comparing self-report with pharmacy dispensing data, and explore different methods defining medication prescription databases.Study design settingSelf-reported among participants CHD (n = 1483) from the seventh wave Tromsø Study was linked Norwegian Prescription Database (NorPD). Cohen’s kappa, sensitivity, specificity, positive negative predictive values were calculated, using NorPD as reference standard. Medication defined three ways; fixed-time window 180 days, legend-time method assuming daily dose one dosage unit or (DDD).ResultsKappa-values antihypertensive drugs, lipid-lowering drugs acetylsalicylic acid all showed substantial agreement (kappa ≥0.61). Validity varied depending on used NorPD. Applying gave higher agreement, specificity compared methods.ConclusionSelf-reported shows high validity when data. For medications, appears to be most appropriate databases.