Sensitivity Analyses
To assess the robustness of the results, several Cox proportional hazard
analyses were also performed. First, a less stringent definition of
atopic dermatitis was used, in which atopic dermatitis was defined as
more than 1 ICD-10 diagnostic code and at least 2 atopic
dermatitis-related treatments. A previous study reported that the
presence of at least 1 of 5 diagnostic codes plus 2 treatment codes for
any skin-directed therapy had a positive predictive value (PPV) of 86%
(95% CI = 80 to 91) for physician-confirmed diagnosis of atopic
dermatitis.22 Second, a more stringent definition was
used, in which hyperlipidemia was defined as a TC level above 200 mg/dL.
This definition excludes those with borderline-high TC levels (170 to
199 mg/dL).