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To provide a map of Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification System codes to individual Rx-Risk comorbidities and to validate the Rx-Risk Comorbidity Index.

The 46 comorbidities in the Rx-Risk Index were mapped to dispensing’s indicative of each condition using ATC codes. Prescription dispensing claims in 2014 were used to calculate the Rx-Risk. A baseline logistic regression model was fitted using age and gender as covariates. Rx-Risk was added to the base model as an (1) unweighted score, (2) weighted score and as (3) individual comorbidity categories indicating the presence or absence of each condition. The Akaike information criterion and c-statistic were used to compare the models.

Models were developed in the Australian Government Department of Veterans’ Affairs health claims data, and external validation was undertaken in a 10% sample of the Australian …