TABLE 2.
—Comparison of Varicella Diagnoses on Death Certificates and Hospital Discharge Records With Review of Hospitalization Records: New York State (Excluding New York City), 1989–1995
| Classification After Review of Medical Recorda | ||||||
| Database | Varicella | Herpes Zoster | Unclassifiable VZV Infection | VZV Was Not Cause of Death | N | Positive Predictive Value (%) of a Varicella Codea (95% CI)b |
| Death certificates, age group | ||||||
| < 50 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 27 | 85 (66, 96) |
| ≥ 50 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 43 (10, 82) |
| Total | 26 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 36 | 76 (59, 89) |
| Hospital discharge records, age group | ||||||
| < 50 | 19 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 25 | 79 (58, 93) |
| ≥ 50 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 16 | 17 (2, 48) |
| Total | 21 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 41 | 58 (41, 74) |
Note. CI = confidence interval; VZV = varicella-zoster virus.
aThe proportion of deaths identified by the data source that were classified as varicella, excluding unclassifiable VZV deaths.
bExact binomial confidence interval