A validation study of a new classification algorithm to identify rheumatoid arthritis using administrative health databases: case-control and cohort diagnostic accuracy studies. Results from the RECord linkage On Rheumatic Diseases study of the Italian Society for Rheumatology.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To develop and validate a new algorithm to identify patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and estimate disease prevalence using administrative health databases (AHDs) of the Italian Lombardy region.

Design

Case-control and cohort diagnostic accuracy study.

Methods

In a randomly selected sample of 827 patients drawn from a tertiary rheumatology centre (training set), clinically validated diagnoses were linked to administrative data including diagnostic codes and drug prescriptions. An algorithm in steps of decreasing specificity was developed and its accuracy assessed calculating sensitivity/specificity, positive predictive value (PPV)/negative predictive value, with corresponding CIs. The algorithm was applied to two validating sets: 106 patients from a s

SUBMITTER: Carrara G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4316439 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature