What Is a Chronic Disease? A Contribution Based on the Secondary Use of 161 Million Discharge Records.

Several definitions of chronic diseases exist. The objective is to reuse a nationwide medical-administrative database (PMSI) to estimate the lifespan of diagnostic codes, hence the chronicity of the corresponding diseases. We analyzed 162 million inpatient stays from 2008 to 2014, and estimate the lifespan of every ICD-10 code for every patient, identified by a unique imprint.