The Use of Administrative Data to Investigate the Population Burden of Hepatic Encephalopathy

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a devastating complication of cirrhosis with an increasing footprint in global public health. Although the condition is defined using a careful history and examination, we cannot accurately measure the true impact of HE relying on data collected exclusively from clinical studies. For this reason, administrative data sources are necessary to study the population burden of HE. Administrative data is generated with each health care encounter to account for health care resource utilization and is extracted into a dataset for the secondary purpose of research. In order to utilize such data for valid analysis, several pitfalls must be avoided—specifically, selecting the particular database capable of meeting the needs of the study’s aims, paying careful attention to the limits of each given database, and ensuring validity of case definition for HE specific to the dataset. In this review, we summarize the types of data available for and the results of administrative data studies of HE.