The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announces the release of the Chronic Condition Indicator (CCI), updated for Fiscal Year 2012 for use with databases available from the Agency's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) as well as other administrative healthcare databases.

The CCI provides an easy way for researchers to categorize the approximately 14,000 current ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes into one of two categories: chronic or not chronic conditions. The tool also assigns ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes into one of 18 body system categories, allowing users to create indicators listing which specific body systems are affected by a chronic condition.

A chronic condition is defined as a condition that lasts 12 months or longer and meets one or both of the following tests: (a) it places limitations on self-care, independent living, and social interactions; and (b) it results in the need for ongoing intervention with medical products, services, and special equipment (see Perrin et al., 1993). The identification of chronic conditions is based on all 5-digit ICD-9-CM codes. E Codes, or external cause of injury codes, are not classified, as all injuries are assumed to be acute.

The body system indicator is based upon the chapters of the ICD-9-CM codebook. This indicator may be useful as a means of counting the number of body systems affected by chronic conditions. Alternatively, the Clinical Classifications Software (CCS) may be used in conjunction with the Chronic Condition Indicator in order to obtain a count of the number of relatively discrete chronic conditions.

The CCI is updated each year. This current version is based on ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes that are valid for January 1, 1980 through September 30, 2012, and is available for download from the HCUP-US Website's Tools & Software page.