Enrollment factors and bias of disease prevalence estimates in administrative claims data.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Considerations for using administrative claims data in research have not been well-described. To increase awareness of how enrollment factors and insurance benefit use may contribute to prevalence estimates, we evaluated how differences in operational definitions of the cohort impact observed estimates.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional study estimating the prevalence of five gastrointestinal conditions using MarketScan claims data for 73.1 million enrollees. We extracted data obtained from 2009 to 2012 to identify cohorts meeting various enrollment, prescription drug benefit, or health care utilization characteristics. Next, we identified patients meeting the case definition for each of the diseases of interest. We compared the estimates obtained to evaluate th

SUBMITTER: Jensen ET 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4599703 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature