Use of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision Codes for Obesity: Trends in the United States from an Electronic Health Record-Derived Database

Obesity is a potentially modifiable risk factor for many diseases, and a better understanding of its impact on health care utilization, costs, and medical outcomes is needed. The ability to accurately evaluate obesity outcomes depends on a correct identification of the population with obesity. The primary objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and accuracy of International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) coding for overweight and obesity within a US primary care electronic health record (EHR) database compared against actual body mass index (BMI) values from recorded clinical patient data; characteristics of patients with obesity who did or did not receive ICD-9 codes for overweight/obesity also were evaluated. The study sample included 5,512,285 patients in the database with any BMI value recorded between January 1, 2014, and June 30, 2014. Based on BMI, 74.6% of patients were categorized as being overweight or obese, but only 15.1% of patients had relevant ICD-9 codes. ICD-9 coding prevalence increased with increasing BMI category. Among patients with obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m(2)), those coded for obesity were younger, more often female, and had a greater comorbidity burden than those not coded; hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and gastroesophageal reflux disease were the most common comorbidities. Key findings: US outpatients with overweight or obesity are not being reliably coded, making ICD-9 codes undependable sources for determining obesity prevalence and outcomes. BMI data available within EHR databases offer a more accurate and objective means of classifying overweight/obese status.