@article {9063, title = {Comparison of self-reported and Medicare claims-identified acute myocardial infarction.}, journal = {Circulation}, volume = {131}, year = {2015}, month = {2015 Apr 28}, pages = {1477-85; discussion 1485}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease is often studied through patient self-report and administrative data. However, these 2 sources provide different information, and few studies have compared them.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We compared data from a longitudinal, nationally representative survey of older Americans with matched Medicare claims. Self-reported heart attack in the previous 2 years was compared with claims-identified acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and acute coronary syndrome. Among the 3.1\% of respondents with self-reported heart attack, 32.8\% had claims-identified AMI, 16.5\% had non-AMI acute coronary syndrome, and 25.8\% had other cardiac claims; 17.3\% had no inpatient visits in the previous 2.5 years. Claims-identified AMIs were found in 1.4\% of respondents; of these, 67.8\% reported a heart attack. Self-reports were less likely among respondents >75 years of age (62.7\% versus 74.6\%; P=0.006), with less than high school education (61.6\% versus 71.4\%; P=0.015), with at least 1 limitation in activities of daily living (59.6\% versus 74.7\%; P=0.001), or below the 25th percentile of a word recall memory test (60.7\% versus 71.3\%; P=0.019). Both self-reported and claims-identified cardiac events were associated with increased mortality; the highest mortality was observed among those with claims-identified AMI who did not self-report (odds ratio, 2.8; 95\% confidence interval, 1.5-5.1) and among those with self-reported heart attack and claims-identified AMI (odds ratio, 2.5; 95\% confidence interval, 1.7-3.6) or non-AMI acute coronary syndrome (odds ratio, 2.7; 95\% confidence interval, 1.8-4.1).

CONCLUSIONS: There is considerable disagreement between self-reported and claims-identified events. Although self-reported heart attack may be inaccurate, it indicates increased risk of death, regardless of whether the self-report is confirmed by Medicare claims.

}, keywords = {Heart disease, Medicare linkage, Medicare/Medicaid/Health Insurance, Self-reported health}, issn = {1524-4539}, doi = {10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.013829}, author = {Laura Yasaitis and Lisa F Berkman and Chandra, Amitabh} } @article {7583, title = {Which Questions in the Health and Retirement Study are Used by Researchers? Evidence from Academic Journals, 2006-2009}, journal = {Forum for Health Economics and Policy}, volume = {14}, year = {2011}, pages = {Article 12}, publisher = {14}, abstract = {Since 2002, the average number of questions asked per respondent in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) has risen by 39 percent, from 413 to 581. Yet there is little or no understanding of which questions, or how many in total, should be included and more importantly, maintained in longitudinal surveys. In this paper, we propose a simple approach to assessing the value of survey questions: journal citation counts. A sample of journal articles and book chapters published in 2006-09 (N = 206) is used to document which questions, and categories of questions, were used most and least frequently. A disproportionate number of published articles used a relatively small number of questions regarding health, wealth, income, and employment. By contrast, several categories of questions were rarely used, and many specific questions were never used. This evidence-based approach to measuring the value of survey questions can have applications for other surveys beyond the HRS.}, keywords = {Methodology}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.2202/1558-9544.1269}, author = {Jackson, Tina and Balduf, Mabel and Laura Yasaitis and Jonathan S Skinner} }