Can healthcare utilization data reliably capture cases of chronic respiratory diseases? a cross-sectional investigation in Italy.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Healthcare utilization data are increasingly used for chronic disease surveillance. Nevertheless, no standard criteria for estimating prevalence of high-impact diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, are available. In this study an algorithm for recognizing COPD/asthma cases from HCU data is developed and implemented in the HCU databases of the Italian Lombardy Region (about 10 million residents). The impact of diagnostic misclassification for reliably estimating prevalence was also assessed.

Methods

Disease-specificdrug codes, hospital discharges together with co-payment exemptions when available, and a combination of them according with patient's age, were used to create the proposed algorithm. Identified cases were considered

SUBMITTER: Biffi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5248488 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature