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Validity of juvenile idiopathic arthritis diagnoses using administrative health data

  • Short Communication - Validation Studies
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Abstract

Administrative health databases are valuable sources of data for conducting research including disease surveillance, outcomes research, and processes of health care at the population level. There has been limited use of administrative data to conduct studies of pediatric rheumatic conditions and no studies validating case definitions in Canada. We report a validation study of incident cases of juvenile idiopathic arthritis in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Cases identified through administrative data algorithms were compared to diagnoses in a clinical database. The sensitivity of algorithms that included pediatric rheumatology specialist claims was 81–86 %. However, 35–48 % of cases that were identified could not be verified in the clinical database depending on the algorithm used. Our case definitions would likely lead to overestimates of disease burden. Our findings may be related to issues pertaining to the non-fee-for-service remuneration model in Nova Scotia, in particular, systematic issues related to the process of submitting claims.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Anne Spencer, MSc for her support in the analysis of the data. We thank Dr. Bianca Lang, Dr. Suzanne Ramsey, and Dr. Adam Huber for permission to use their encrypted license numbers. This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the Canadian Arthritis Network.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Rheumatology, Department of Pediatrics, Dalhousie University, IWK Health Centre, 5850 University Avenue, Halifax, NS, B3K 6R8, Canada

    Elizabeth Stringer

  2. Divisions of Rheumatology and Clinical Epidemiology, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Sasha Bernatsky

Authors
  1. Elizabeth Stringer
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  2. Sasha Bernatsky
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Correspondence to Elizabeth Stringer.

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Stringer, E., Bernatsky, S. Validity of juvenile idiopathic arthritis diagnoses using administrative health data. Rheumatol Int 35, 575–579 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-014-3142-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00296-014-3142-8

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