All,

I have a very large file (+4GB) and I don't want to add any unnecessary variables to it. I am identifying claims with a diagnosis code indicating that a mammography was done. There are eight diagnosis codes so I need to check each one of them. I could create a new variable for each diagnosis code saying whether it matched the ICD9 code for mammography and then count the hits across these new variables. If there was at least one hit I would say that there was a mammography. I'm trying to do this with do repeat using scratch variables so that I don't have to create 8 new variables. Let's say for the sake of argument that "50000" is the code for mammography.

data list / test1 1-5 (A) test2 7-11 (A) test3 13-17 (A).

begin data

50000 64233 44444

88888 00321 23456

89989 50000 23242

end data.

dataset name test.

dataset activate test.

do repeat diagnosis = test1 to test3

/mammo_diag = #mammo_diag1 to #mammo_diag3.

if (ltrim(rtrim(diagnosis)) = "50000") mammo_diag = 1.

end repeat.

exe.

if (sum.1(#mammo_diag1 to #mammo_diag3)>0) mammo = 1.

exe.

"mammo" is the variable that says 1 for yes there was a mammography done on that line. But what is happening is that when "50000" is identified on line one of the data every subsequent line is getting a 1.

Can someone explain to me why this is not working? I'm sure I've done this before.

Thanks

Matt

Matthew Pirritano, Ph.D.

Research Analyst IV

Medical Services Initiative (MSI)

Orange County Health Care Agency

(714) 568-5648