Reliability of Routinely Collected Hospital Data for Child Maltreatment Surveillance

Background: Internationally, research on child maltreatment-related injuries has been hampered by a lack of available routinely collected health data to identify cases, examine causes, identify risk factors and explore health outcomes. Routinely collected hospital separation data coded using the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) system provide an internationally standardised data source for classifying and aggregating diseases, injuries, causes of injuries and related health conditions for statistical purposes. However, there has been limited research to examine the reliability of these data for child maltreatment surveillance purposes. This study examined the reliability of coding of child maltreatment in Queensland, Australia. Methods: A retrospective medical record review and recoding methodology was used to assess the reliability of coding of child maltreatment. A stratified sample of hospitals across Queensland was selected for this study, and a stratified random sample of cases was selected from within those hospitals. Results: In 3.6% of cases the coders disagreed on whether any maltreatment code could be assigned (definite or possible) versus no maltreatment being assigned (unintentional injury), giving a sensitivity of 0.982 and specificity of 0.948. The review of these cases where discrepancies existed revealed that all cases had some indications of risk documented in the records. 15.5% of cases originally assigned a definite or possible maltreatment code, were recoded to a more or less definite strata. In terms of the number and type of maltreatment codes assigned, the auditor assigned a greater number of maltreatment types based on the medical documentation than the original coder assigned (22% of the auditor coded cases had more than one maltreatment type assigned compared to only 6% of the original coded data). The maltreatment types which were the most ‘under-coded’ by the original coder were psychological abuse and neglect. Cases coded with a sexual abuse code showed the highest level of reliability. Conclusion: Given the increasing international attention being given to improving the uniformity of reporting of child-maltreatment related injuries and the emphasis on the better utilisation of routinely collected health data, this study provides an estimate of the reliability of maltreatment-specific ICD-10-AM codes assigned in an inpatient setting

Community-based palliative care is associated with reduced emergency department use by people with dementia in their last year of life: A retrospective cohort study

Objective: To describe patterns in the use of hospital emergency departments in the last year of life by people who died with dementia and whether this was modified by use of community-based palliative care. Design: Retrospective population-based cohort study of people in their last year of life. Time-to-event analyses were performed using cumulative hazard functions and flexible parametric proportional hazards regression models. Setting/participants: All people living in Western Australia who died with dementia in the 2-year period 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2010 (dementia cohort; N = 5261). A comparative cohort of decedents without dementia who died from other conditions amenable to palliative care (N = 2685). Results: More than 70% of both the dementia and comparative cohorts attended hospital emergency departments in the last year of life. Only 6% of the dementia cohort used community-based palliative care compared to 26% of the comparative cohort. Decedents with dementia who were not receiving community-based palliative care attended hospital emergency departments more frequently than people receiving community-based palliative care. The magnitude of the increased rate of emergency department visits varied over the last year of life from 1.4 (95% confidence interval: 1.1–1.9) times more often in the first 3 months of follow-up to 6.7 (95% confidence interval: 4.7–9.6) times more frequently in the weeks immediately preceding death. Conclusions: Community-based palliative care of people who die with or of dementia is relatively infrequent but associated with significant reductions in hospital emergency department use in the last year of life

Incisional hernia repair after caesarean section: a population based study

BACKGROUND Incisional hernias occur at surgical abdominal incision sites but the association with caesarean section (CS) has not been examined. AIM: To determine whether CS is a risk factor for incisional hernia repair. MATERIAL and METHODS: Population-based cohort study in Australia using linked birth and hospital data for women who gave birth from 2000 to 2011. (n=642,578) Survival analysis was used to explore the association between CS and subsequent incisional hernia repair. Analyses were adjusted for confounding factors including other abdominal surgery. The main outcome measure was surgical repair of an incisional hernia. RESULTS: 217,555 women (33.9%) had at least one CS and 1,554 (0.2%) had an incisional hernia repair. The frequency of incisional hernia repair in women who had ever had a caesarean section was 0.47%, compared to 0.12% in women who never had a caesarean section. After controlling for different follow up lengths and known explanatory variables, the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) was 2.73 (95%CI 2.45-3.06, P <0.001). Incisional hernia repair risk increased with number of caesarean sections: women with two CS had a threefold increased risk of incisional hernia repair, which increased to 6 fold after five CS (aHR=6.29, 95%CI 3.99-9.93, P<0.001) compared to women with no CS. Prior abdominal surgery including other hernia repair also increased the risk of incisional hernia repair (all p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: There was a strong association between maternal CS and subsequent incisional hernia repair, which increased as the number of CSs increased, but the absolute risk of incisional hernia repair was low.We thank the New South Wales (NSW) Ministry of Health for access to the population health data and the NSW Centre for Health Record Linkage for linking the data sets. This work was supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre for Research Excellence Grant (1001066). CLR is supported by a NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship (#APP1021025)

Disparities in cataract surgery between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in New South Wales, Australia

&lt;b&gt;Background:&lt;/b&gt; To investigate variation in rates of cataract surgery in New South Wales (NSW), Australia by area of residence for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal adults.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Design:&lt;/b&gt; Observational data linkage study of hospital admissions.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Participants:&lt;/b&gt; 289 646 NSW residents aged 30 years and over admitted to NSW hospitals for 444 551 cataract surgery procedures between 2001 and 2008.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Methods:&lt;/b&gt; Analysis of linked routinely collected hospital data using direct standardisation and multilevel negative binomial regression models accounting for clustering of individuals within Statistical Local Areas (SLAs).&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Main outcome measures:&lt;/b&gt; Age-standardised cataract surgery rates and adjusted rate ratios (ARRs).&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Results:&lt;/b&gt; Aboriginal people had lower rates of cataract procedures than non-Aboriginal people of the same age and sex, living in the same SLA (ARR 0.71, 95% CI 0.68-0.75). There was significant variation in cataract surgery rates across SLAs for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people, with the disparity higher in major cities and less disadvantaged areas. Rates of surgery were lower for Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal people in most SLAs, but in a few, the rates were similar or higher for Aboriginal people.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Conclusions:&lt;/b&gt; Aboriginal people in NSW received less cataract surgery than non-Aboriginal people, despite evidence of higher cataract rates. This disparity was greatest in urban and wealthier areas. Higher rates of surgery for Aboriginal people observed in some specific locations are likely to reflect the availability of public ophthalmology services, targeted services for Aboriginal people and higher demand for surgery in these populations.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt

Treatment delays in paediatric dento-alveolar trauma at a tertiary referral hospital

Background: Paediatric dento-alveolar trauma is a common event. Delays in treatment can have adverse effects on long term outcomes and the aim of this study was to quantify the treatment delays in paediatric dento-alveolar trauma in a tertiary referral hospital. Methods: All cases of paediatric dento-alveolar trauma over a two-year period from July 2000 to June 2002 were identified and the charts were reviewed retrospectively. All children presenting the emergency department with dento-alveolar trauma within 48 hours of injury during the time period were included. Results: Forty-three patients were identified. The average age was 5.51 years, though there was a bias towards one and two year olds. Males were injured 1.5 times more frequently than females. There was an average delay of 9.6 hours between injury and treatment for all patients. Transit time from outside practitioners to hospital and waiting times in hospital made up the greatest delays. Children injured an average of 2.37 teeth and only 14 per cent were uncomplicated crown fractures. Conclusions: Children who present to children's hospitals for treatment of dento-alveolar trauma have more severe injuries than those treated elsewhere. They have large but potentially reducible delays between injury and treatment

Development of a validation algorithm for 'present on admission' flagging

Background. The use of routine hospital data for understanding patterns of adverse outcomes has been limited in the past by the fact that pre-existing and post-admission conditions have been indistinguishable. The use of a 'Present on Admission' (or POA) indicator to distinguish pre-existing or co-morbid conditions from those arising during the episode of care has been advocated in the US for many years as a tool to support quality assurance activities and improve the accuracy of risk adjustment methodologies. The USA, Australia and Canada now all assign a flag to indicate the timing of onset of diagnoses. For quality improvement purposes, it is the 'not-POA' diagnoses (that is, those acquired in hospital) that are of interest. Methods. Our objective was to develop an algorithm for assessing the validity of assignment of 'not-POA' flags. We undertook expert review of the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Australian Modification (ICD-10-AM) to identify conditions that could not be plausibly hospital-acquired. The resulting computer algorithm was tested against all diagnoses flagged as complications in the Victorian (Australia) Admitted Episodes Dataset, 2005/06. Measures reported include rates of appropriate assignment of the new Australian 'Condition Onset' flag by ICD chapter, and patterns of invalid flagging. Results. Of 18,418 diagnosis codes reviewed, 93.4% (n = 17,195) reflected agreement on status for flagging by at least 2 of 3 reviewers (including 64.4% unanimous agreement; Fleiss' Kappa: 0.61). In tests of the new algorithm, 96.14% of all hospital-acquired diagnosis codes flagged were found to be valid in the Victorian records analysed. A lower proportion of individual codes was judged to be acceptably flagged (76.2%), but this reflected a high proportion of codes use

Red blood cell transfusion is associated with further bleeding and fresh-frozen plasma with mortality in nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding

BACKGROUND: Blood products are commonly transfused for patients with nonvariceal upper gastrointestinal bleeding (NVUGIB). While concerns exist about further bleeding and mortality in subsets of patients receiving red blood cell (RBC) transfusion, the impact of non-RBC blood products has not previously been systematically investigated. The aim of the study was to investigate the associations between blood products transfusion, further bleeding, and mortality after acute NVUGIB. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A retrospective cohort study examined further bleeding and 30-day and 1-year mortality in adult patients who underwent gastroscopy for suspected acute NVUGIB between 2008 and 2010 in three tertiary hospitals in Western Australia. Survival analysis was performed. RESULTS: A total of 2228 adults (63% male) with 2360 hospital admissions for NVUGIB met the inclusion criteria. Median age at presentation was 70 years (range, 19–99 years). Thirty-day mortality was 4.9% and 1-year mortality was 13.9%. Transfusion of 4 or more units of RBCs was associated with greater than 10 times the odds of further bleeding in patients with a hemoglobin level of more than 90 g/L (odds ratio, 11.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.1-45.7; p ≤ 0.001), but was not associated with mortality. Administration of 5 or more units of fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) was associated with increased 30-day (hazard ratio, 2.8; 95% CI, 1.3-5.9; p = 0.008) and 1-year (hazard ratio, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.3-5.0; p = 0.005) mortality after adjusting for coagulopathy, comorbidity, Rockall score, and other covariates. CONCLUSION: In this large, multicenter study of NVUGIB, RBC transfusion was associated with further bleeding but not mortality, while FFP transfusion was associated with increased mortality in a subset of patients

Obstetric anal sphincter injury rates among primiparous women with different modes of vaginal delivery

Objective: To determine whether OASI rates are increasing at equal rates among different vaginal birth modes. Methods: Using New South Wales (NSW) linked population data, the overall yearly OASI rates were determined among the 261,008 primiparous vertex singleton term births which occurred from 2001-2011. OASI rates among non-instrumental, forceps and vacuum births with and without episiotomy were also determined. Multivariable logistic regression was used to ascertain the adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for each birth category by year. The trends of the aORs over time for each birth category were compared. Results: The overall OASI rate was 4.1% in 2001 and 5.9% in 2011. The highest OASI rates were among forceps births without episiotomy (12.2% in 2001, 14.8% in 2011), and lowest for non-instrumental births without episiotomy (2.6% in 2001, 4.4% in 2011). After adjustment for known risk factors, the only birth categories to show significant increases with OASI over the study period were non-instrumental without episiotomy and forceps with episiotomy (linear trend p<0.01). Conclusion: Overall OASI rates have continued to increase. Known risk factors do not fully explain the increase for non-instrumental births without episiotomy and forceps with episiotomy. Changes in clinical management and/or reporting may be contributing.Australian National Health and Medical Research Council; Australian Research Council; Dr Albert S McKern Research Scholarshi

Exploring disparities in acute myocardial infarction events between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians: roles of age, gender, geography and area-level disadvantage

We investigated disparities in rates of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in the 199 Statistical Local Areas (SLAs) in New South Wales, Australia. Using routinely collected and linked hospital and mortality data from 2002 to 2007, we developed multilevel Poisson regression models to estimate the relative rates of first AMI events in the study period accounting for area of residence. Rates of AMI in Aboriginal people were more than two times that in non-Aboriginal people, with the disparity greatest in more disadvantaged and remote areas. AMI rates in Aboriginal people varied significantly by SLA, as did the Aboriginal to non-Aboriginal rate ratio. We identified almost 30 priority areas for universal and targeted preventive interventions that had both high rates of AMI for Aboriginal people and large disparities in rates

Using Routinely Collected Hospital Data for Child Maltreatment Surveillance: Issues, Methods and Patterns

Background: International data on child maltreatment are largely derived from child protection agencies, and predominantly report only substantiated cases of child maltreatment. This approach underestimates the incidence of maltreatment and makes inter-jurisdictional comparisons difficult. There has been a growing recognition of the importance of health professionals in identifying, documenting and reporting suspected child maltreatment. This study aimed to describe the issues around case identification using coded morbidity data, outline methods for selecting and grouping relevant codes, and illustrate patterns of maltreatment identified. Methods: A comprehensive review of the ICD-10-AM classification system was undertaken, including review of index terms, a free text search of tabular volumes, and a review of coding standards pertaining to child maltreatment coding. Identified codes were further categorised into maltreatment types including physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, and neglect. Using these code groupings, one year of Australian hospitalisation data for children under 18 years of age was examined to quantify the proportion of patients identified and to explore the characteristics of cases assigned maltreatment-related codes. Results: Less than 0.5% of children hospitalised in Australia between 2005 and 2006 had a maltreatment code assigned, almost 4% of children with a principal diagnosis of a mental and behavioural disorder and over 1% of children with an injury or poisoning as the principal diagnosis had a maltreatment code assigned. The patterns of children assigned with definitive T74 codes varied by sex and age group. For males selected as having a maltreatment-related presentation, physical abuse was most commonly coded (62.6% of maltreatment cases) while for females selected as having a maltreatment-related presentation, sexual abuse was the most commonly assigned form of maltreatment (52.9% of maltreatment cases). Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that hospital data could provide valuable information for routine monitoring and surveillance of child maltreatment, even in the absence of population-based linked data sources. With national and international calls for a public health response to child maltreatment, better understanding of, investment in and utilisation of our core national routinely collected data sources will enhance the evidence-base needed to support an appropriate response to children at risk