Objective:

To assess the validity of the Spanish Minimum Basic Data Set (MBDS) for identifying major congenital anomalies in the Valencian Community.

Methods:

A retrospective epidemiological study was carried out. Children under the age of one year, born in 2007 and residing in the Valencian Community with congenital anomalies code 740-759 CIE9-MC, were selected from the MBDS, in addition to a random sample of children under the age of 1 year without these discharge codes. Having reviewed the clinical documentation, the cases were classified as true positives and negatives and false positives and negatives. Positive and negative predictive value and sensitivity were calculated. The kappa test was applied to analyse diagnostic consistency between the MBDS and the clinical documentation.

Results:

A total of 2305 discharges of 1651 patients were identified. 4 out of the 5434 patients sampled had a major congenital abnormality. The positive predictive value was 56.4% (95% confidence interval [95%CI]: 53.9-58.8) and the negative predictive value was 99.3% (95%CI: 98.6-100.0). MBDS sensitivity was 68.6% (95%CI: 66.1-71.1). The most common codes in the true positives were: 745.5 (atrial septal defect), 745.4 (ventricular septal defect) and 747.0 (patent ductus arteriosus) and in the false positives: 747.0, 745.5 and 752.51 (cryptorchidism). 25.5% of diagnoses with congenital anomaly from the MBDS were not in the clinical documentation. Considering all diagnoses coded in the MBDS, the correlation was 0.70 (95%CI: 0.68-0.72).

Conclusions:

The MBDS is the main source of information to detect cases in the registry of congenital anomalies of the Valencian Community. Its main limitation is the high number of false positive cases detected.

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