Agreement between administrative databases and medical charts for pregnancy-related variables among asthmatic women.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the validity of pregnancy variables recorded in administrative databases of Quebec using patient medical charts as the gold standard among asthmatic pregnant women.


METHODS
Three administrative databases were linked and provided information on maternal, pregnancy and infant characteristics for 726 pregnant asthmatic women who delivered in 1990-2000. Algorithms were developed to measure variables that were not recorded directly in the databases or to minimize the number of missing values for variables recorded in two or more databases. Medical file data were collected by two trained research nurses in 43 hospitals. The validity of categorical variables was assessed with sensitivity, specificity, predictive positive values (PPVs) and predictive negative values (PNVs), whereas the validity of continuous variables was assessed with Pearson correlation using the medical chart as the gold standard.


RESULTS
The sensitivity of the sex of the baby, previous live birth and previous pregnancy ranged from 0.97 to 0.99. Corresponding figures were 0.92-0.98 for specificity. We also found high correlation coefficients, ranging from 0.875 to 0.999 for the length of gestation, dates of last menstruation and delivery, maternal age and birth weight.


CONCLUSIONS
Pregnancy-related variables recorded in administrative databases or derived from algorithms based on two or more databases were found to be highly valid as compared to the medical chart among asthmatic women.
Vilain
Anne
A
Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Otis
Sophie
S
Forget
Amélie
A
Blais
Lucie
L
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001249:Asthma / Q000188:drug therapy*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011792:Quebec; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents