VALIDATION OF SELF-REPORTED HISTORY OF ACUTE MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION - EXPERIENCE OF THE MINNESOTA-HEART-SURVEY-REGISTRY

Accurate separation of new cases of acute myocardial infarction from p revalent cases is critical for assessing trends in morbidity in popula tion-based studies. This report presents data on the validity of self- reported history of previous acute myocardial infarction among 3,703 p atients admitted to a coronary care unit with suspicion of acute myoca rdial infarction. We substantiated the history of a prior event for 60 % of those who reported one (629 of 1,053) and found 40% to be false-p ositive histories. Much of the false-positive reporting was related to previous cardiac hospitalizations, predominantly (40%) for unstable a ngina.