TY - JOUR AU - Goodman, Richard A. AU - Posner, Samuel F. AU - Huang, Elbert S. AU - Parekh, Anand K. AU - Koh, Howard K. PY - 2013 TI - Defining and Measuring Chronic Conditions: Imperatives for Research, Policy, Program, and Practice T2 - Preventing Chronic Disease JO - Prev Chronic Dis SP - E66 VL - 10 CY - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, USA. N2 - Current trends in US population growth, age distribution, and disease dynamics foretell rises in the prevalence of chronic diseases and other chronic conditions. These trends include the rapidly growing population of older adults, the increasing life expectancy associated with advances in public health and clinical medicine, the persistently high prevalence of some risk factors, and the emerging high prevalence of multiple chronic conditions. Although preventing and mitigating the effect of chronic conditions requires sufficient measurement capacities, such measurement has been constrained by lack of consistency in definitions and diagnostic classification schemes and by heterogeneity in data systems and methods of data collection. We outline a conceptual model for improving understanding of and standardizing approaches to defining, identifying, and using information about chronic conditions in the United States. We illustrate this model's operation by applying a standard classification scheme for chronic conditions to 5 national-level data systems. SN - 1545-1151 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd10.120239 DO - 10.5888/pcd10.120239 ER -