Abstract

FERNANDEZ-MONTERO, Alejandro et al. Validity of self-reported metabolic syndrome components in a cohort study. Gac Sanit [online]. 2011, vol.25, n.4, pp.303-307. ISSN 0213-9111.

Objectives: To assess the accuracy of self-reported data needed to constitute the metabolic syndrome in the University of Navarra Follow-Up [Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN)] cohort. Methods: The SUN project is a multi-purpose prospective cohort, formed by more than 20,000 university graduates, followed-up using surface mail questionnaires every 2 years. In a sample of 287 cohort participants, self-reported data on the criteria needed to define the metabolic syndrome (waist circumference, blood pressure, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol and glucose) were compared with the same biometric data obtained by blood tests or measured by trained medical staff. Intra-class correlation coefficients with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), relative mean error and agreement limits according to the method proposed by Bland and Altman were calculated for each variable studied. Results: High intraclass correlations were found for the values of waist circumference (r=0.86, 95% CI: 0.80-0.90) and triglycerides (r=0.71, 95%CI: 0.61-0.79). Moderate intraclass correlations were found (between 0.46 and 0.63) for the other factors. Relative mean errors were always<2.5%, and >91% of values were within the limits of agreement for all variables. Conclusions: The results suggest that self-declared data on the criteria of metabolic syndrome obtained in the SUN cohort, though with some caution, are sufficiently accurate to be used in epidemiological studies.

Keywords : Metabolic syndrome; Validation studies; Self-reported data; SUN cohort.

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