Reliability of Self-report Data on Age of Onset in Essential Tremor: Data from a Prospective, Longitudinal Cohort

Background: Essential tremor (ET) is a highly prevalent neurological disease. Age of onset can occur anytime between childhood and advanced age. Tremor generally starts insidiously. Age of onset is a particularly important data item in clinical and epidemiological research. In general, these data are self-reported by ET cases. A fundamental question is whether ET cases reliably report their age of onset. Methods: In this prospective, epidemiological study of 125 ET cases, self-reported age of onset data were collected at regular 18 months intervals over four time points. Results: The correlation between self-reported age of onset was high - intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.972 (95% confidence interval = 0.962 – 0.980, p
Source: Neuroepidemiology - Category: Epidemiology Source Type: research