Development of an administrative definition for celiac disease.

Population-based data from the Manitoba Bone Mineral Density (BMD) Program registry, which contains medical information on all individuals in the province of Manitoba, Canada who have received BMD testing, was used to define the study cohort. Linked hospital discharge abstracts and physician billing claims were used to ascertain diagnoses of celiac disease in administrative data. A population-based CD serologic registry was used as the validation database. One diagnosis code in hospital discharge abstracts or two or more diagnosis codes in physician billing claims optimized the detection of positive celiac serology with sensitivity of 84% (95% CI 80-88%), specificity of 97% (95% CI 80-88%), PPV of 80% (95% CI 80-88%), and NPV of 97% (95% CI 80-88%). Our administrative data case definition for celiac disease demonstrates good sensitivity and specificity for detecting positive celiac serology.