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Evaluation of a Methodologic Approach to Define an Inception Cohort of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Using Administrative Data
Author(s) -
Curtis Jeffrey R.,
Xie Fenglong,
Chen Lang,
Greenberg Jeffrey D.,
Zhang Jie
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
arthritis care and research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.032
H-Index - 163
eISSN - 2151-4658
pISSN - 2151-464X
DOI - 10.1002/acr.23533
Subject(s) - medicine , rheumatoid arthritis , diagnosis code , cohort , health plan , medical diagnosis , health care , environmental health , pathology , population , economics , economic growth
Objective Identifying incident rheumatoid arthritis ( RA ) is desirable in order to create inception cohorts. We evaluated an approach to identify incident RA in health plan claims data. Methods Both Medicare and commercial claims data were linked to Corrona, a US RA registry. We evaluated the accuracy of year of RA onset in the registry (gold standard) versus different claims algorithms, varying International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes for RA /arthritis, duration of health plan enrollment preceding diagnosis (minimum of 1 versus 2 years), and use of RA medications. Results were reported as positive predictive values ( PPV s) of the claims‐based algorithm for incident RA . Results Depending on the algorithm tested and whether patients were enrolled in Medicare or the commercial health plan, the PPV s for incident RA ranged from 68–81%. A 2‐year clean period free of all RA ‐related diagnoses and medications was somewhat more optimal although, by comparison, a 1‐year clean period yielded similar PPV s and retained approximately 90% more RA patients for analysis. Conclusion Claims‐based algorithms can accurately identify incident RA .