Validation of a Case Definition to Identify Patients Diagnosed With Cardiovascular Disease in Canadian Primary Care Practices

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of death globally. This study validates a primary care-based electronic medical record case definition for CVD. METHODS: This retrospective, cross-sectional study explores electronic medical record data from 1574 primary care providers participating in the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network. A reference standard was created by reviewing medical records of a subset of patients in this network (n = 2017) for coronary artery disease (CAD), cerebrovascular disease (CeVD), and peripheral vascular disease (PVD). Together, these data produced a CVD reference. We applied validated case definitions to an active patient population (≥ 1 visit between January 1, 2018 and December 31, 2019) to estimate prevalence using the exact binomial test (N = 689,301). Descriptive statistics, χ(2) tests, and t tests characterized patients with vs without CVD. RESULTS: The optimal CVD Case Definition 2 had a sensitivity of 68.5% (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 61.6%-74.8%), a specificity of 97.8% (95% CI: 97.0%-98.4%), a positive predictive value of 77.7% (95% CI: 71.6%-82.7%), and a negative predictive value of 96.5% (95% CI: 95.8%-97.1%). Included in this CVD definition was a strong CAD case definition with sensitivity of 91.6% (95% CI: 84.6%-96.1%), specificity of 98.3% (95% CI: 97.6%-98.8%), a PPV of 74.8% (95% CI: 67.8%-80.7%), and an NPV of 99.5% (95% CI: 99.1%-99.7%). This CVD definition also included CeVD and PVD case definitions with low sensitivity (77.6% and 36.6%) but high specificity (98.6% and 99.0%). The estimated prevalence of CVD among primary care patients is 11.2% (95% CI, 11.1%-11.3%; n = 77,064); the majority had CAD (6.4%). CONCLUSIONS: This study validated a definition of CVD and its component parts—CAD, CeVD, and PVD. Understanding the prevalence and disease burden for patients with CVD within primary care settings can improve prevention and disease management.