Requiring 2 administrative diagnoses over 2 years was the optimal strategy for identifying hypertension-related comorbidities, yielding high specificity (>91%) and good agreement with chart review.
Observational (n=1,176)
Yes
The objective was to determine the best strategy for identifying outpatients with hypertension-related diagnoses using Veterans Affairs (VA) administrative databases. We reviewed 1176 outpatient charts from 10 VA sites in 1999, taking the presence of 11 diagnoses relevant to hypertension management as the "gold standard" for identifying the comorbidity. We calculated agreement, sensitivity, and specificity for the chart versus several administrative data-based algorithms. Using 1999 data and requiring 1 administrative diagnosis, observed agreement ranged from 0.98 (atrial fibrillation) to 0.85 (hyperlipidemia), and kappas were generally high. Sensitivity varied from 38% (tobacco use) to 97% (diabetes); specificity exceeded 91% for 10 of 11 diagnoses. Requiring 2 years of data and 2 diagnoses improved most measures, with minimal sensitivity decrease. Agreement between the database and charts was good. Administrative data varied in its ability to identify all patients with a given diagnosis but identified accurately those without. The best strategy for case-finding required 2 diagnoses in a 2-year period.
Borzecki et al. (Wed,) conducted a observational in Hypertension-related comorbidities (n=1,176). Administrative data-based algorithms vs. Chart review was evaluated on Agreement, sensitivity, and specificity for identifying 11 hypertension-related diagnoses. Requiring 2 administrative diagnoses over 2 years was the optimal strategy for identifying hypertension-related comorbidities, yielding high specificity (>91%) and good agreement with chart review.