SUMMARY Background and AimThe potential prognostic value for survival of nutritional status in cirrhotics after adjusting Child-Pugh classification and Model for EndStage Liver Disease has not been evaluated.

ImportanceRSV is a common illness among young children that causes significant morbidity and health care costs.ObjectiveRoutinely collected health administrative data can be used to track disease incidence, explore risk factors and conduct health services research. Due to potential for misclassification bias, the accuracy of data-elements should be validated prior to use. The objectives of this study were to validate an algorithm to accurately identify pediatric cases of hospitalized respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) from within Ontario’s health administrative data, estimate annual incidence of hospitalization due to RSV and report the prevalence of major risk factors within hospitalized patients.Study Design and SettingA retrospective chart review was performed to establish a reference-standard cohort of children from the Ottawa region admitted to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) for RSV-related disease in 2010 and 2011. Chart review data was linked to Ontario’s administrative data and used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of algorithms of RSV-related ICD-10 codes within provincial hospitalization and emergency department databases. Age- and sex-standardized incidence was calculated over time, with trends in incidence assessed using Poisson regression.ResultsFrom a total of 1411 admissions, chart review identified 327 children hospitalized for laboratory confirmed RSV-related disease. Following linkage to administrative data and restriction to first admissions, there were 289 RSV patients in the reference-standard cohort. The best algorithm, based on hospitalization data, resulted in sensitivity 97.9% (95%CI: 95.5–99.2%), specificity 99.6% (95%CI: 98.2–99.8%), PPV 96.9% (95%CI: 94.2–98.6%), NPV 99.4% (95%CI: 99.4–99.9%). Incidence of hospitalized RSV in Ontario from 2005–2012 was 10.2 per 1000 children under 1 year and 4.8 per 1000 children aged 1 to 3 years. During the surveillance period, there was no identifiable increasing or decreasing linear trend in the incidence of hospitalized RSV, hospital length of stay and PICU admission rates. Among the Ontario RSV cohort, 16.3% had one or more major risk factors, with a decreasing trend observed over time.ConclusionChildren hospitalized for RSV-related disease can be accurately identified within population-based health administrative data. RSV is a major public health concern and incidence has not changed over time, suggesting a lack of progress in prevention.

A preoperative FI derived from HA data is a robust method to measure frailty in elective and emergency patients. Generalizable FIs should be considered a standard approach to population-level study of surgical frailty.

Background Polypharmacy is increasingly prevalent in older patients and is associated with adverse events among medical patients. The impact of polypharmacy on outcomes after elective surgery is poorly described. The authors’ objective was to measure the association of polypharmacy with survival, complications, and resource use among older patients undergoing elective surgery. Methods After registration (NCT03133182), the authors identified all individuals older than 65 yr old having their first elective noncardiac surgery in Ontario, Canada, between 2002 and 2014. Using linked administrative data, the authors identified all prescriptions dispensed in the 90 days before surgery and classified people receiving five or more unique medications with polypharmacy. The associations of polypharmacy with 90-day survival (primary outcome), complications, length of stay, costs, discharge location, and readmissions were estimated after multilevel, multivariable adjustment for demographics, comorbidities, previous healthcare use, and surgical factors. Prespecified and post hoc sensitivity analyses were also performed. Results Of 266,499 patients identified, 146,026 (54.8%) had polypharmacy. Death within 90 days occurred in 4,356 (3.0%) patients with polypharmacy and 1,919 (1.6%) without (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.21; 95% CI, 1.14 to 1.27). Sensitivity analyses demonstrated no increase in effect when only high-risk medications were considered and attenuation of the effect when only prescriptions filled in the 30 preoperative days were considered (hazard ratio = 1.07). Associations were attenuated or not significant in patients with frailty and higher comorbidity scores. Conclusions Older patients with polypharmacy represent a high-risk stratum of the perioperative population. However, the authors’ findings call into question the causality and generalizability of the polypharmacy-adverse outcome association that is well documented in nonsurgical patients.