Developing Methodology to Estimate Gestational Age Using Administrative Claims

The accurate ascertainment of any pregnancy and the determination of the start of any pregnancy are integral to improving maternal health outcomes and assessing drug exposure. Drug safety and pregnancy outcomes studies utilize health claims, and currently, there is no unified, comprehensive approach to identify pregnancies using the current coding system, i.e., ICD-10 CM/PCS, which is a major obstacle to conducting such studies.

Using the HealthCore Integrated Research Database (HIRD), we have developed a pregnancy method that 1) ascertains end of pregnancy events for both birth/delivery and termination, 2) estimates gestational age, and 3) distinguishes multiple pregnancies. The assumptions and criteria of our proposed method were tested and refined using the HIRD database, as well as through numerous patient/claims profile reviews. A future validation study would be useful in providing an estimate of the accuracy of our method.