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Validation of administrative health data for the pediatric population: a scoping review
Natalie J Shiff1, Sadia Jama, Catherine Boden
1Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, 103 Hospital Drive, SK S7N 0W8, Saskatoon, Canada. natalie.shiff@usask.ca.
Insights
This review found gaps in validating administrative health data for children. More research is needed on outpatient settings and older pediatric age groups to improve data accuracy.
Area of Science:
- Health Informatics
- Pediatric Research
- Data Validation
Background:
- Administrative health data is crucial for research but requires validation.
- Pediatric populations present unique challenges for data accuracy.
- Scoping reviews are essential for understanding the evidence base.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conduct a scoping review of literature on the validity of administrative health data for pediatric populations (≤20 years).
- To identify existing research on administrative data validation in children.
- To highlight areas needing further investigation.
Main Methods:
- Comprehensive literature search of OVID Medline, CINAHL, and EMBASE databases.
- Abstracted characteristics including study population, health condition, and data sources.
- Analyzed extracted data using descriptive statistics and Cohen's κ for inter-rater agreement.
Main Results:
- 37 articles met inclusion criteria, with most studies from the USA and Canada.
- Case-finding algorithms were more frequently validated than single diagnosis codes.
- Five conditions (diabetes, IBD, asthma, rotavirus, tuberculosis) were validated in multiple studies.
Conclusions:
- Significant gaps exist in validating administrative health data for pediatric populations.
- Limited research focuses on outpatient settings and older pediatric age groups.
- Further validation studies are needed to enhance the reliability of pediatric administrative health data.
Background:
The purpose of this research was to perform a scoping review of published literature on the validity of administrative health data for ascertaining health conditions in the pediatric population (≤20 years).
Methods:
A comprehensive search of OVID Medline (1946 - present), CINAHL (1937 - present) and EMBASE (1947 - present) was conducted. Characteristics of validation studies that were abstracted included the study population, health condition, topic of the validation (e.g., single diagnosis code versus case-finding algorithm), administrative and validation data sources. Inter-rater agreement was measured using Cohen's κ. Extracted data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Results:
A total of 37 articles met the study inclusion criteria. Cohen's κ for study inclusion/exclusion and data abstraction was 0.88 and 0.97, respectively. Most studies validated administrative data from the USA (43.2%) and Canada (24.3%), and focused on inpatient records (67.6%). Case-finding algorithms (56.7%) were more frequently validated than diagnoses codes alone (37.8%). Five conditions were validated in more than one study: diabetes mellitus, inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, rotavirus infection, and tuberculosis.
Conclusions:
This scoping review identified a number of gaps in the validation of administrative health data for pediatric populations, including limited investigation of outpatient populations and older pediatric age groups.
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