Differences between self-reported and laboratory measures of diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and hypercholesterolemia

Abstract

This paper aims to compare the self-re-ported prevalence measured by laboratory tests and the false positive and negative values for dia-betes, chronic kidney disease, and hypercholeste-rolemia. We used information from the interview and laboratory tests of the National Health Survey (2013, 2014-2015). Sensitivity and specificity were calculated by gender, age, schooling, having health insurance, and time since the last medical visit. We used logistic regression to analyze associated factors with false positives and negatives. Sensitivity was higher for diabetes and among older adults and those who had a medical visit more recently. Specificity was high for all diseases, with better performance among younger people, those with high schooling, and a visit more than one year ago. The likelihood of false positives and negatives decreased with schooling and increased with age. Low sensitivity suggests that prevalence might be higher than indicated by self-reported measures.