Exploring the impact of varying definitions of exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in routinely collected electronic medical records.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Validity of exposure and outcome measures in electronic medical records is vital to ensure robust, comparable study findings however, despite validation studies, definitions of variables used often differ. Using exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as an example, we investigated the impact of potential misclassification of different definitions commonly used in publications on study findings.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study was performed. English primary care data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum database with linked secondary care data were used to define a population of COPD patients ≥40 years old registered at a general practice. Index date was the date eligibility criteria were met and end of follow-up was 30/12/

SUBMITTER: Whittaker H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10619826 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature