REGISTRATION OF RISK-FACTORS FOR STROKE IN-HOSPITAL RECORDS

Little information exists on the accuracy of data in hospital records. We studied the accuracy of registration of a history of (1) hypertension, (2) stroke or myocardial infarction and (3) smoking in medical records of 201 patients admitted to two university departments of neurology. We first screened the medical records; thereafter, we interviewed all patients with a standard questionnaire. For records that mentioned a risk factor as being present or absent (59% overall), the agreement between record and interview was good for hypertension (kappa 0.63) and previous stroke or myocardial infarction (kappa 0.64) and excellent for smoking (kappa 0.87). We conclude that for these two departments of neurology the routine recording of three risk factors for stroke - though often incomplete - was highly valid for items booked as present or absent.