Principal Investigator:
E. Jeffrey Metter
Collaborating Investigators: (none)
Year First Collected: 1958
Year Last Collected: 1998
Frequency of Collection: Every visit
Subset Data Files on the VMS Cluster? None
Data Type Notes:
(none)
Descriptive History:
Information Type 3 Diagnoses
Descriptive History: At every BLSA visit, participants undergo a medical evaluation. As a result
of that examination, the examining physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant generates
a list of diagnoses. The diagnoses cumulate continuously over all visits. Each diagnosis is coded
using the ICD-9 CM standard. Each diagnosis can receive up to three ICD-9-CM codes. The
diagnoses are coded in relationship to where the information used to make the diagnosis was
derived, the certainty of the diagnosis, and an estimate for when the diagnosis first occurred, and
when it was last active.
Each diagnosis is categorized on whether it is an active diagnosis (a current health problem or a
diagnosis that is receiving treatment), inactive (a diagnosis that is not causing current problems),
a sign or symptom (a diagnosis that represents a significant health complaint or finding from
physical examination or laboratory studies that does not specify a specific diagnosis, e.g., a
positive exercise stress test), an irrelevant diagnosis (a diagnosis made during previous visits that
at a follow-up visit did not appear to be a true problem), an inactive sign or symptom (a clinical
finding that no longer was present). This approach to dividing up the diagnoses into categories
was started in 1990, and charts were updated to this format when participants returned for
subsequent visits. No categorization has taken place for those participants seen prior to 1990 and
not returning thereafter.
In addition, a text file exists that contains the actual text written by the health examiner for each
specific diagnosis. Columns 58-59 specify which text card is associated with the specific
diagnosis.
Investigators:
None
Frequency of collection: every visit
Inclusion/exclusion rules: All subjects
Related protocols: none
Publications: Many of the researchers use this file to help establish health criteria for their
studies.