Agreement between questionnaire and medical records on some health and socioeconomic problems among poisoning cases

BACKGROUND: The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the agreement between questionnaire and medical records on some health and socioeconomic problems among poisoning cases. METHODS: Cross-sectional sample of 100 poisoning cases consecutively admitted to the Hospital Pulau Pinang, Malaysia during the period from September 2003 to February 2004 were studied. Data on health and socioeconomic problems were collected both by self-administered questionnaire and from medical records. Agreement between the two sets of data was assessed by calculating the concordance rate, Kappa (k) and PABAK. McNemar statistic was used to test differences between categories. RESULTS: Data collected by questionnaire and medical records showed excellent agreement on the "marital status"; good agreements on "chronic illness", "psychiatric illness", and "previous history of poisoning"; and fair agreements on "at least one health problem", and "boy-girl friends problem". PABAK values suggest better agreements' measures. CONCLUSION: There were excellent to good agreements between questionnaire and medical records on the marital status and most of the health problems and fair to poor agreements on the majority of socioeconomic problems. The implications of those findings were discussed.