scholarly journals OpenSAFELY: factors associated with COVID-19-related hospital death in the linked electronic health records of 17 million adult NHS patients

Author(s):  
◽  
Elizabeth Williamson ◽  
Alex J Walker ◽  
Krishnan Bhaskaran ◽  
Seb Bacon ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundEstablishing who is at risk from a novel rapidly arising cause of death, and why, requires a new approach to epidemiological research with very large datasets and timely data. Working on behalf of NHS England we therefore set out to deliver a secure and pseudonymised analytics platform inside the data centre of a major primary care electronic health records vendor establishing coverage across detailed primary care records for a substantial proportion of all patients in England. The following results are preliminary.Data sourcesPrimary care electronic health records managed by the electronic health record vendor TPP, pseudonymously linked to patient-level data from the COVID-19 Patient Notification System (CPNS) for death of hospital inpatients with confirmed COVID-19, using the new OpenSAFELY platform.Population17,425,445 adults.Time period1st Feb 2020 to 25th April 2020.Primary outcomeDeath in hospital among people with confirmed COVID-19.MethodsCohort study analysed by Cox-regression to generate hazard ratios: age and sex adjusted, and multiply adjusted for co-variates selected prospectively on the basis of clinical interest and prior findings.ResultsThere were 5683 deaths attributed to COVID-19. In summary after full adjustment, death from COVID-19 was strongly associated with: being male (hazard ratio 1.99, 95%CI 1.88-2.10); older age and deprivation (both with a strong gradient); uncontrolled diabetes (HR 2.36 95% CI 2.18-2.56); severe asthma (HR 1.25 CI 1.08-1.44); and various other prior medical conditions. Compared to people with ethnicity recorded as white, black people were at higher risk of death, with only partial attenuation in hazard ratios from the fully adjusted model (age-sex adjusted HR 2.17 95% CI 1.84-2.57; fully adjusted HR 1.71 95% CI 1.44-2.02); with similar findings for Asian people (age-sex adjusted HR 1.95 95% CI 1.73-2.18; fully adjusted HR 1.62 95% CI 1.431.82).ConclusionsWe have quantified a range of clinical risk factors for death from COVID-19, some of which were not previously well characterised, in the largest cohort study conducted by any country to date. People from Asian and black groups are at markedly increased risk of in-hospital death from COVID-19, and contrary to some prior speculation this is only partially attributable to pre-existing clinical risk factors or deprivation; further research into the drivers of this association is therefore urgently required. Deprivation is also a major risk factor with, again, little of the excess risk explained by co-morbidity or other risk factors. The findings for clinical risk factors are concordant with policies in the UK for protecting those at highest risk. Our OpenSAFELY platform is rapidly adding further NHS patients’ records; we will update and extend these results regularly.

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 552-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice S. Forster ◽  
Caroline Burgess ◽  
Hiten Dodhia ◽  
Frances Fuller ◽  
Jane Miller ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 214-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia H M van Jaarsveld ◽  
Martin C Gulliford

ObjectiveThis study aimed to use primary care electronic health records to evaluate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in 2–15-year-old children in England and compare trends over the last two decades.DesignCohort study of primary care electronic health records.Setting375 general practices in England that contribute to the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink.PatientsIndividual participants were sampled if they were aged between 2 and 15 years during the period 1994–2013 and had one or more records of body mass index (BMI).Main outcome measurePrevalence of overweight (including obesity) was defined as a BMI equal to or greater than the 85th centile of the 1990 UK reference population.ResultsData were analysed for 370 544 children with 507 483 BMI records. From 1994 to 2003, the odds of overweight and obesity increased by 8.1% per year (95% CI 7.2% to 8.9%) compared with 0.4% (−0.2% to 1.1%) from 2004 to 2013. Trends were similar for boys and girls, but differed by age groups, with prevalence stabilising in 2004 to 2013 in the younger (2–10 year) but not older (11–15 year) age group, where rates continued to increase.ConclusionsPrimary care electronic health records in England may provide a valuable resource for monitoring obesity trends. More than a third of UK children are overweight or obese, but the prevalence of overweight and obesity may have stabilised between 2004 and 2013.


2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (S1) ◽  
pp. 31-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
William M. Tierney ◽  
Sheri A. Alpert ◽  
Amy Byrket ◽  
Kelly Caine ◽  
Jeremy C. Leventhal ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 1900-1905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen P. Booth ◽  
◽  
Omar Khan ◽  
Alison Fildes ◽  
A. Toby Prevost ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin C Gulliford ◽  
Emma C Rezel-Potts

Objective: To estimate mortality of care home residents during the Covid-19 pandemic from primary care electronic health records. Design: Matched cohort study Setting: 1,421 general practices contributing to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum Database in England. Participants: 217,987 patients aged 18 to 104 years with recorded care home residence in England in the period 2015 to 2020. There were 86,371 care home residents contributing data in 2020, with 29,662 deaths; 83,419 (97%) were matched on age, gender and general practice with 312,607 community-dwelling adults. Main outcome measures: All-cause mortality. Analysis was by Poisson regression adjusting for age, gender, long-term conditions, region, year and calendar week. Results: The highest first wave age-specific mortality rate was 6.02 (95% confidence interval 5.97 to 6.07) per 100 patients per week in men aged 95-104 years between 13th-19th April 2020. Compared with community-dwelling controls, the adjusted rate ratio for mortality of care home residents was 4.95 (4.62 to 5.32) in February 2020, increasing to 8.34 (7.95 to 8.74) in April 2020, declining to 3.93 (3.68 to 4.20) in December 2020. During the week of 13th to 19th April 2020, mortality of care home residents was 10.74 (9.72 to 11.85) times higher than for matched community-dwelling controls. Conclusions: Individual-patient data from primary care electronic health records may be used to estimate mortality in care home residents. Mortality is substantially higher than for community-dwelling comparators and showed a disproportionate increase in the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic but not the second wave. This study provides evidence to support earlier, decisive action to protect these vulnerable populations in the event of further outbreaks. Prospective investigations of care home mortality are warranted.


BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. e022152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Petersen ◽  
Tomi Peltola ◽  
Samuel Kaski ◽  
Kate R Walters ◽  
Sarah Hardoon

ObjectivesTo investigate how depression is recognised in the year after child birth and treatment given in clinical practice.DesignCohort study based on UK primary care electronic health records.SettingPrimary care.ParticipantsWomen who have given live birth between 2000 and 2013.OutcomesPrevalence of postnatal depression, depression diagnoses, depressive symptoms, antidepressant and non-pharmacological treatment within a year after birth.ResultsOf 206 517 women, 23 623 (11%) had a record of depressive diagnosis or symptoms in the year after delivery and more than one in eight women received antidepressant treatment. Recording and treatment peaked 6–8 weeks after delivery. Initiation of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) treatment has become earlier in the more recent years. Thus, the initiation rate of SSRI treatment per 100 pregnancies (95% CI) at 8 weeks were 2.6 (2.5 to 2.8) in 2000–2004, increasing to 3.0 (2.9 to 3.1) in 2005–2009 and 3.8 (3.6 to 3.9) in 2010–2013. The overall rate of initiation of SSRI within the year after delivery, however, has not changed noticeably. A third of the women had at least one record suggestive of depression at any time prior to delivery and of these one in four received SSRI treatment in the year after delivery.Younger women were most likely to have records of depression and depressive symptoms. (Relative risk for postnatal depression: age 15–19: 1.92 (1.76 to 2.10), age 20–24: 1.49 (1.39 to 1.59) versus age 30–34). The risk of depression, postnatal depression and depressive symptoms increased with increasing social deprivation.ConclusionsMore than 1 in 10 women had electronic health records indicating depression diagnoses or depressive symptoms within a year after delivery and more than one in eight women received antidepressant treatment in this period. Women aged below 30 and from the most deprived areas were at highest risk of depression and most likely to receive antidepressant treatment.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian MacKenna ◽  
Seb Bacon ◽  
Alex J Walker ◽  
Helen J Curtis ◽  
Richard Croker ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundIn England, national safety guidance recommends that ciclosporin, tacrolimus and diltiazem are prescribed by brand name due to their narrow therapeutic windows and, in the case of tacrolimus, to reduce the chance of organ transplantation rejection. Various small studies have shown that changes to electronic health records (EHR) interface can affect prescribing choices.ObjectivesOur objectives were to assess variation by EHR system in breaches of safety guidance around prescribing of ciclosporin, tacrolimus and diltiazem; and to conduct user-interface research into the causes of such breaches.MethodsWe carried out a retrospective cohort study using prescribing data in English primary care. Participants were English general practices and their respective electronic health records. The main outcome measures were (1) variation in ratio of breaching / adherent prescribing all practices (2) description of observations of EHR usage.ResultsA total of 2,575,411 prescriptions were issued in 2018 for ciclosporin, tacrolimus and diltiazem (over 60mg); of these, 316,119 prescriptions breached NHS guidance (12.3%). Breaches were most common amongst users of the EMIS EHR (in 23.2% of ciclosporin & tacrolimus prescriptions, and 22.7% of diltiazem prescriptions); but breaches were observed in all EHRs.ConclusionDesign choices in EHR strongly influence safe prescribing of ciclosporin, tacrolimus and diltiazem; and breaches are prevalent in general practices in England. We recommend that all EHR vendors review their systems to increase safe prescribing of these medicines in line with national guidance. Almost all clinical practice is now mediated through an EHR system: further quantitative research into the effect of EHR design on clinical practice is long overdue.


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