Let ν be either ω ∈ C \ {0} or q ∈ C \ {0, 1}, and let D ν be the corresponding difference operator defined in the usual way either by(q−1)x . Let U and V be two moment regular linear functionals and let {P n (x)} n≥0 and {Q n (x)} n≥0 be their corresponding orthogonal polynomial sequences (OPS). We discuss an inverse problem in the theory of discrete orthogonal polynomials involving the two OPS {P n (x)} n≥0 and {Q n (x)} n≥0 assuming that their difference derivatives D ν of higher orders m and k (resp.) are connected by a linear algebraic structure relation such aswhere M, N, m, k ∈ N ∪ {0}, a M,n = 0 for n ≥ M , b N,n = 0 for n ≥ N , and a i,n = b i,n = 0 for i > n. Under certain conditions, we prove that U and V are related by a rational factor (in the ν−distributional sense). Moreover, when m = k then both U and V are D νsemiclassical functionals. This leads us to the concept of (M, N )-D ν -coherent pair of order (m, k) extending to the discrete case several previous works. As an application we consider the OPS with respect to the following Sobolev-type inner productassuming that U and V (which, eventually, may be represented by discrete measures sup-ported either on a uniform lattice if ν = ω, or on a q-lattice if ν = q) constitute a (M, N )-D ν -coherent pair of order m (that is, an (M, N )-D ν -coherent pair of order (m, 0)), m ∈ N being fixed.