Methods of defining hypertension in electronic medical records: validation against national survey data.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Electronic medical records (EMR) can be a cost-effective source for hypertension surveillance. However, diagnosis of hypertension in EMR is commonly under-coded and warrants the needs to review blood pressure and antihypertensive drugs for hypertension case identification.

Methods

We included all the patients actively registered in The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database, UK, on 31 December 2011. Three case definitions using diagnosis code, antihypertensive drug prescriptions and abnormal blood pressure, respectively, were used to identify hypertension patients. We compared the prevalence and treatment rate of hypertension in THIN with results from Health Survey for England (HSE) in 2011.

Results

Compared with prevalence reported by HSE (29.7%), the

SUBMITTER: Peng M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5072168 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature