Self-reports of health care utilization compared to provider records

This study compares self-reports of medical utilization with provider recor ds. As part of a chronic disease self-management intervention study, patien ts completed self-reports of their last six months of health care utilizati on. A subgroup of patients was selected from the larger study and their sel f-reports of utilization were compared to computerized utilization records. Consistent with earlier studies, patients tended to report less physician utilization than was recorded in the computerized provider records. However , they also tended to report slightly more emergency room visits than were reported in the computerized utilization records. There was no association between demographic or health variables and the tendency toward discrepancy between self-report and computerized utilization record reports. However, there was a tendency for the discrepancy to increase as the amount of recor d utilization increased. Thus, the likelihood of bias caused by differing d emographic factors is low, but researchers should take into account that un derreporting occurs and is likely to increase as utilization increases. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.