Abstract

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Introduction Self-reported data regarding health conditions are utilised in both clinical practice and research, however, their agreement with general practice records is variable. The extent of this variability is poorly studied among older adults, particularly among those with multiple health conditions, cognitive impairment or frailty. This study investigates the agreement between self-reported and general practice recorded data among such patients and the impact of participant factors on this agreement. Methods Data on health conditions was collected from participants in the Community Ageing Research 75+ (CARE75+) study (n=964) by self-reporting during face to face assessment and interrogation of the participants’ practice health records. Agreement between self-report and practice records was assessed using Kappa statistics and the effect of participant demographics using logistic regression. Results Agreement ranged from K=0.25-1.00. The presence of ≥2 health conditions modified agreement for cancer (odds ratio, OR:0.62, 95% confidence interval, CI:0.42-0.94), diabetes (OR:0.55, 95%CI:0.38-0.80), dementia (OR:2.82, 95%CI:1.31-6.13) and visual impairment (OR:3.85, 95%CI:1.71-8.62). Frailty reduced agreement for cerebrovascular disease (OR:0.45, 95%CI:0.23-0.89), heart failure (OR:0.40, 95%CI:0.19-0.84) and rheumatoid arthritis (OR:0.41, 95%CI:0.23-0.75). Cognitive impairment reduced agreement for dementia (OR:0.36, 95%CI:0.21-0.62), diabetes (OR:0.47, 95%CI:0.33-0.67), heart failure (OR:0.53, 95%CI:0.35-0.80), visual impairment (OR:0.42, 95%CI:0.25-0.69) and rheumatoid arthritis (OR:0.53, 95%CI:0.37-0.76). Conclusions Significant variability exists for agreement between self-reported and general practice recorded comorbidities. This is further affected by individuals’ baseline demographics. This study is the first to assess frailty as a factor modifying agreement and highlights the importance of utilising the general practice records as the gold standard for data collection from older adults.