Validity of Administrative Data for Identifying Birth-Related Outcomes with the End Date of Pregnancy in a Japanese University Hospital

This study aimed to develop and validate claims-based algorithms for identifying live birth, fetal death, and cesarean section by utilizing administrative data from a university hospital in Japan. We included women who visited the Department of Obstetrics at a university hospital in 2018. The diagnosis, medical procedures, and medication data were used to identify potential cases of live birth, fetal death, and cesarean section. By reviewing electronic medical records, we evaluated the positive predictive values (PPVs) and the accuracy of the end date of pregnancy for each claims datum. “Selected algorithm 1” based on PPVs and “selected algorithm 2” based on both the PPVs and the accuracy of the end date of pregnancy were developed. A total of 1757 women were included, and the mean age was 32.8 years. The PPVs of “selected algorithm 1” and “selected algorithm 2” were both 98.1% for live birth, 99.0% and 98.9% for fetal death, and 99.7% and 100.0% for cesarean section, respectively. These findings suggest that the developed algorithms are useful for future studies for evaluating live birth, fetal death, and cesarean section with an accurate end date of pregnancy.