Term: Charlson Comorbidity Index

Glossary Definition

Last Updated: 2014-10-06

Definition:

The Charlson Comorbidity Index is a method for measuring patient comorbidity based on the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) diagnoses codes of individual patients using administrative data, such as Hospital Abstracts data. Each comorbidity category has an associated weight, based on the adjusted risk of one-year mortality, and the sum of all the weights results in a single comorbidity score for a patient. A score of zero indicates that no comorbidities were found. The higher the score, the more likely the predicted outcome will result in higher resource use or mortality.

For more information, please read the Charlson Comorbidity Index concept.

Related concepts 

• Charlson Comorbidity Index
• Measures of Comorbidity

Related terms 

• Comorbidity / Comorbidities
• Elixhauser Comorbidity Index
• ICD-10
• ICD-9-CM
• International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10)
• International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, with Clinical Modifications (ICD-9-CM)

References 

• Charlson ME, Pompei P, Ales KL, MacKenzie CR. A new method of classifying prognostic comorbidity in longitudinal studies: development and validation. J Chronic Dis 1987;40(5):373-383. [Abstract] (View)
• Deyo RA, Cherkin DC, Ciol MA. Adapting a clinical comorbidity index for use with ICD-9-CM administrative databases. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 1992;45(6):613-619. [Abstract] (View)
• Quan H, Sundararajan V, Halfon P, Fong A, Burnand B, Luthi JC, Saunders LD, Beck CA, Feasby TE, Ghali WA. Coding algorithms for defining comorbidities in ICD-9-CM and ICD-10 administrative data. Med Care 2005;43(11):1130-1139. [Abstract] (View)
• Roos LL, Walld RK, Romano PS, Roberecki S. Short-term mortality after repair of hip fracture. Do Manitoba elderly do worse? Med Care 1996;34(4):310-326. [Abstract] (View)

Term used in 

• Finlayson G, Ekuma O, Yogendran M, Burland E, Forget E. The Additional Cost of Chronic Disease in Manitoba. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2010. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Garland A, Fransoo R, Olafson K, Ramsey C, Yogendran M, Chateau D, McGowan K. The Epidemiology and Outcomes of Critical Illness in Manitoba. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2012. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Lix L, Smith M, Pitz M, Ahmed R, Quon H, Griffith J, Turner D, Hong S, Prior H, Banerjee A, Koseva I, Kulbaba C. Cancer Data Linkage in Manitoba: Expanding the Infrastructure for Research. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2016. [Report] [Summary] (View)
• Lix LM, Singh H, Derksen S, Sirski M, McCulloch S. Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (GIE) Utilization in Manitoba. Winnipeg, MB: Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, 2021. [Report] [Additional Materials] (View)