ArticleBMC medical research methodology2025
Comparison of health measures between survey self-reports and electronic health records among Millennium Cohort Study participants receiving Veterans Health Administration care.
Article in BMC medical research methodology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- A mixed-methods study comparing clinical and patient-reported perspectives on long COVID: insights from electronic health records and narrative journal entries.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Observational
- Impact of Constipation on Quality of Life, Work Productivity, and Treatment Practices: Findings from the CONNECT Web-Based Survey.Digestion · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSurveys are a useful tool for eliciting self-reported health information, but the accuracy of such information may vary. We examined the agreement between self-reported health information and medical record data among 116,288 military service members and veterans enrolled in a longitudinal cohort.
methodsMillennium Cohort Study participants who separated from service and registered for health care in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) by September 18, 2020, were eligible for inclusion. Baseline and follow-up survey responses (2001-2016) about 39 medical conditions, health behaviors, height, and weight were compared with analogous information from VHA and military medical records. Medical record diagnoses were classified as one qualifying ICD code in any diagnostic position between October 1, 1999, and September 18, 2020. Additional analyses were restricted to medical record diagnoses occurring before survey self-report and using specific diagnostic criteria (two outpatient or one inpatient ICD code). Positive, negative, and overall (Youden's J) agreement was calculated for categorical outcomes; Bland-Altman plots were examined for continuous measures.
resultsAmong 116,288 participants, 71.8% self-reported a diagnosed medical condition. Negative agreement between self-reported and VHA medical record diagnoses was > 90% for most (80%) conditions, but positive agreement was lower (6.4% to 56.3%). Mental health conditions were more frequently recorded in medical records, while acute conditions (e.g., bladder infections) were self-reported at a higher frequency. Positive agreement was lower when analyses were restricted to medical record diagnoses occurring prior to survey self-report. Specific diagnostic criteria resulted in higher overall agreement.
conclusionsWhile negative agreement between self-reported and medical record diagnoses was high in this population, positive and overall agreement were not strong and varied considerably by health condition. Though the limitations of survey-reported health conditions should be considered, using multiple data sources to examine health outcomes in this population may have utility for research, clinical planning, or public health interventions.
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