Georgie M Massen, Olivia Blamires, Megan Grainger, Max Matta, Rachel Monica Gyemfuah Twumasi, Tanvi Joshi, Alex Laity, Elena Nakariakova, Thilaksana Thavaranjan, Aziz Sheikh, Jennifer K Quint
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Routinely collected electronic healthcare records (EHRs) document many details of a person's health, including demographics, preventive services, symptoms, tests, disease diagnoses and prescriptions. Although not collected for research purposes, these data provide a wealth of information which can be incorporated into epidemiological investigations, and records can be analysed to understand a range of important health questions. We aimed to understand the use of routinely collected health data in epidemiological studies relating to three of the most common chronic respiratory conditions, namely: asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and interstitial lung disease (ILD). We also characterised studies using EHR data to investigate respiratory diseases more generally, relative to cardiovascular disease and COVID-19, to understand trends in the use of these data.
Methods: We conducted a search of the Scopus database, to identify original research articles (irrespective of date) which used data from one of the following most frequently used UK EHR databases: Clinical Practice Research Datalink (including General Practice Research Database (CPRD's predecessor)), The Health Improvement Network and QResearch, defined through the presence of keywords. These databases were selected as they had been previously included in the works of Vezyridis and Timmons.
Findings: A total of 716 manuscripts were included in the analysis of the three chronic respiratory conditions. The majority investigated either asthma or COPD, whilst only 28 manuscripts investigated ILD. The number of publications has increased for respiratory conditions over the past 10 years (888% increase from 2000 to 2022) but not as much as for cardiovascular diseases (1105%). These data have been used to investigate comorbidities, off-target effects of medication, as well as assessing disease incidence and prevalence. Most papers published across all three domains were in journals with an impact factor less than 10.
期刊介绍:
Pragmatic and Observational Research is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal that publishes data from studies designed to closely reflect medical interventions in real-world clinical practice, providing insights beyond classical randomized controlled trials (RCTs). While RCTs maximize internal validity for cause-and-effect relationships, they often represent only specific patient groups. This journal aims to complement such studies by providing data that better mirrors real-world patients and the usage of medicines, thus informing guidelines and enhancing the applicability of research findings across diverse patient populations encountered in everyday clinical practice.