Hi, I am thrilled to share about my team and I's research project titled Common Nutrition-Related ICD-10 Codes in Louisiana and Alabama, a Comparative Retrospective Analysis. As osteopathic physicians, we emphasize holistic care, which includes addressing nutrition. Food insecurity is a critical public health issue. In Alabama, 15% of people face food insecurity, slightly higher than Louisiana's 14%. This study aims to identify the most prevalent nutrition-related medical conditions using ICD-10 codes logged by students at the Louisiana and Alabama campuses of Edward Viya College of Osteopathic Medicine, also referred to as VCOM. By analyzing the nutrition-related chief complaints of patients seen at VCOM rural and medically underserved population clinics, our goal is to identify and compare key malnutrition patterns within this patient demographic, while also determining if students at different clinic sites were exposed to different nutrition-related medical conditions. Now let's look at the methods. We conducted a retrospective review of ICD-10 codes logged from March of 2022 to December of 2023. Data was extracted from the Credo database and organized by campus. The codes were categorized according to nutrition-related medical issues using guidelines from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Excel was used to create tables comparing the ICD-10 codes from each campus side-by-side and SigmaPlot software was utilized to render t-tests identifying significant differences between the ICD-10 code categories. Now let's discuss our key findings. In Figure 1, we present the top 11 nutrition-related ICD-10 code categories, with Louisiana data represented in green and Alabama data represented in tan. As you can see, the logging trends were quite similar across the two states. In fact, the three most frequently logged ICD-10 codes in both states were primary hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. Figure 2 illustrates the ICD-10 codes logged for chronic kidney disease, with Stage 3 accounting for the majority of cases. We hypothesize that this is due to symptom progression at this stage in the disease. Symptoms presenting to rural clinics may face barriers to care, resulting in fewer routine checkups and seeking medical attention primarily when symptoms significantly impact their quality of life. Figure 3 presents the results for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' endocrine, nutrition, and metabolic category. This was the only category with statistically significant differences between the ICD-10 codes logged in Alabama and Louisiana. The most notable logging disparities were in hypothyroidism and hyperlipidemia, with Alabama documenting a higher number of cases in both conditions. In conclusion, our research underscores the need for greater emphasis on nutrition education and dietary counseling during patient interactions. Regarding this, nutrition-related ICD-10 codes, such as Z71.3 for dietary counseling, were notably underutilized, documented 46 times in Alabama clinics and 53 times in Louisiana clinics. The data also highlights the importance of further investigation into the barriers patients face at these VCOM clinic sites, which may hinder the prevention of nutrition-related diseases. We propose that strengthening collaboration between physicians and dietitians could significantly improve health outcomes within these patient populations. In closing, limitations that may have impacted our data's accuracy include strict adherence to ICD-10 codes listed by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, leading to omission of hyper-specific ICD-10 codes that fell within broader nutrition-related categories. The inexperience with ICD-10 coding by VCOM student doctors possibly also distorted the precision of data, and data not accounting for malnutrition patterns seen in patients younger than 19 years old. While more research is needed, this data provides valuable insights into common nutrition-related challenges faced by patients in Alabama and Louisiana. I want to thank you so much today for your time and attention.

nutrition-related ICD-10 codes

hypertension

rural healthcare barriers

dietitian collaboration

dietary counseling