The Validity of Self-Reports of Physician Use Among the Older Population

Abstract

This study assessed the validity of older person self-reports of doctor visits, examining variation in the validity of these reports due to factors commonly used in models of health service use. Data were from a sample of 215 healthy, community-dwelling older persons. Participantswere interviewed three times in person at 6-month intervals. They also completed brief mail questionnaires each month between the personal interviews. Information about physical health status and health service use was obtained from the participants' personal physicians. One-way ANOVA tests of means and multinomial logit analyses indicated those respondents reporting more physician visits were significantly less likely to report the same number of visits as the doctors reported and were more likely to underreport than overreport the number of visits. Among the nonsignificant relationships with reporting style were several measures of health status. Implications of recall period length on the validity of these reports are discussed.