O'Rourke, Julia A.Ravichandran, CaitlinHowe, Yamini J.Mullett, Jennifer E.Keary, Christopher J.Golas, Sara B.Hureau, Amrita R.McCormick, MorganChung, JeanheeRose, Noel R.McDougle, Christopher J.2019-08-282019-08-282019-05-29O'Rourke, J. A., Ravichandran, C., Howe, Y. J., Mullett, J. E., Keary, C. J., Golas, S. B., … McDougle, C. J. (2019). Accuracy of self-reported history of autoimmune disease: A pilot study. PloS one, 14(5), e0216526. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0216526https://hdl.handle.net/1805/20646Research associating the increased prevalence of familial autoimmunity with neuropsychiatric disorders is reliant upon the ascertainment of history of autoimmune diseases from relatives. To characterize the accuracy of self-report, we compared self-reported diagnoses of 18 autoimmune diseases using an online self-report questionnaire to the electronic medical record (EMR) diagnoses in 1,013 adult (age 18-70 years) patients of a primary care clinic. For the 11 diseases meeting our threshold observed prevalence, we estimated sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) for self-reported diagnoses under the assumption that EMR-based diagnoses were accurate. Six diseases out of 11 had either sensitivity or PPV below 50%, with the lowest PPV for dermatological and endocrinological diseases. Common errors included incorrectly self-reporting type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM), when type 1 DM was indicated by the EMR, and reporting rheumatoid arthritis when osteoarthritis was indicated by the EMR. Results suggest that ascertainment of familial autoimmunity through self-report contributes to inconsistencies and inaccuracies in studies of autoimmune disease history and that future studies would benefit from incorporating EMR review and biological measures.en-USAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesFamilial autoimmunityNeuropsychiatric disordersAutoimmune diseasesPositive predictive value (PPV)Negative predictive value (NPV)Article