To validate eight commonly used International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) diagnosis codes for childhood sensorineural hearing loss registered in the Danish National Patient Registry.
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
No actionable change for individual clinical practice — this is a registry-validation study, but audiologists and researchers using Danish or similar Nordic registry data should consult its accuracy estimates before designing epidemiological studies.
Validated ICD-10 code accuracy is a prerequisite for trustworthy population-level research on childhood hearing loss prevalence, outcomes, and health-service planning.
- 01Validation study of eight ICD-10 codes for childhood sensorineural hearing loss in Danish registry data.
- 02Assesses positive predictive value and other accuracy metrics against clinical records.
- 03Findings are directly relevant to researchers using Nordic administrative health databases.
- 04Inaccurate coding could systematically bias epidemiological hearing-loss studies.
- 05Results support (or caution against) specific code use in future Danish registry research.
ICD-10 codes in the Danish National Patient Registry have measurable validity for identifying childhood sensorineural hearing loss.
studysupported- PMID
- 42822163
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.ijporl.2026.113037.
- Journal
- International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 2b
- Population
- Children with sensorineural hearing loss recorded in the Danish National Patient Registry
- Intervention
- Validation of eight ICD-10 diagnosis codes for childhood sensorineural hearing loss
- Comparator
- Clinical gold-standard diagnosis records
Primary outcomes
Positive predictive value of ICD-10 codes for childhood sensorineural hearing loss; Sensitivity and specificity of individual ICD-10 codes