Central Distributor only - because of confidentiality restrictions, age in years (AGE) is suppressed or offset by a few years on some records.

Because California did not provide an admission date, the date of service was used to calculate age.

Beginning in data year 2014, the reported age was used to assign AGE. Age could not be calculated because the date of birth (DOB) provided by Colorado does not include the day of birth. Only birth month and year are provided. The day of birth was set to 15 for all records.

Beginning with 1998, the Colorado supplied age at admission was used to assign AGE when the age could not be calculated.

From 1994-1997, Colorado supplied age at admission. For consistency with earlier years of the SASD, however, only the calculated age was used to assign the HCUP variable AGE.

From 1988-1993, Colorado did not supply age at admission. Only the calculated age could be used to assign the HCUP variable age.

Beginning in 2004, Florida provides DOB and ADATE for all discharges.

Beginning in 1998, Florida supplied ADATE and DOB for patients less than 11 years old. Only the reported age in years could be used to assign AGE for patients over 10 years old.

AGE may differ by one year from the actual age. When only the year of birth is available, Iowa assigns the day and month of birth to '01', which may cause the age calculated from birth date to be one year less than the actual age.

Beginning in 2013, the supplied age in years is used when the data element cannot be calculated.

For discharges less than 90 years old, if the age could not be calculated from dates, then the reported age was used to assign AGE. For discharges that are 90 or older, only the calculated age could be used to assign AGE because Nevada sets age in years to 90 for all discharges age 90 and above.

Beginning in 2009 AGE was provided. In 2008, Age was calculated during the HCUP processing.

Prior to 1994, New Jersey reports age as a two-digit code with a maximum of 99 and provides a birth century indicator. Beginning in 1994, New Jersey provides a four-digit birth year. If age could not be calculated (ADATE or DOB missing or invalid) then age was assigned as follows:

Beginning with the 2008 data, the HCUP data element AGE is missing (.) for AIDS/HIV patients. New York identifies AIDS/HIV records by ICD-9-CM diagnosis code, DRG, or MS-DRG:

• An admitting, principal or any secondary diagnosis of "042", "043", "044", "7958", "27910", "27919", "2793", "1363", "79571", "07951", "07952", "07953", "V017" or "V08".
• A DRG of 488 through 490 (prior to October 2007) or MS-DRG of 700 through 716 (beginning in October 2007).

Please note that the admitting diagnosis is not retained in the HCUP databases prior to 2012.

In the 1988-1997 HCUP New York databases, AGE could not be calculated because New York did not report full admission and birth dates. During HCUP processing, only the reported age in years could be used to assign AGE.

Prior to 2004, the reported age was not used when AGE could not be calculated because Utah supplied age at discharge. Beginning in 2004, Utah supplied the age at admission which was used during HCUP processing.

Beginning with the 2015 data, the HCUP data element AGE is set to missing (.) in the Central Distributor SASD for records involving substance abuse or HIV infection. This was done at the request of the Utah Partner organization.

Beginning in 2005, Wisconsin no longer codes ages greater than 96 to 96. Prior to 2005, only the calculated age could be used to assign AGE because Wisconsin groups ages greater than 96. AGE was calculated using the date of birth and date of principal procedure because the admission date is not provide by the state.