title: The prevalence of maternal medical conditions during pregnancy and a validation of their reporting in hospital discharge data.
abstract: Population health datasets are a valuable resource for studying maternal and obstetric health outcomes. However, their validity has not been thoroughly examined. We compared medical records from a random selection of New South Wales (NSW) women who gave birth in a NSW hospital in 2002 with coded hospital discharge records. We estimated the population prevalence of maternal medical conditions during pregnancy and found a tendency towards underreporting although specificities were high, indicating that false positives were uncommon.
authors.affiliation: Perinatal Research, The Kolling Institute of Medical Research, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. rhadfield@med.usyd.edu.au
authors.forename: Ruth M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Hadfield
authors.forename: Samantha J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lain
authors.forename: Carolyn A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Cameron
authors.forename: Jane C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: Jonathan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Christine L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D046110:Hypertension, Pregnancy-Induced / Q000453:epidemiology; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D008499:Medical Records; D009517:New South Wales / Q000453:epidemiology; D010351:Patient Discharge; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011254:Pregnancy in Diabetics / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology