scholarly journals Development and Validation of a Primary Care Electronic Health Record Phenotype to Study Migration and Health in the UK

Author(s):  
Neha Pathak ◽  
Claire X. Zhang ◽  
Yamina Boukari ◽  
Rachel Burns ◽  
Rohini Mathur ◽  
...  

International migrants comprised 14% of the UK’s population in 2020; however, their health is rarely studied at a population level using primary care electronic health records due to difficulties in their identification. We developed a migration phenotype using country of birth, visa status, non-English main/first language and non-UK-origin codes and applied it to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD database of 16,071,111 primary care patients between 1997 and 2018. We compared the completeness and representativeness of the identified migrant population to Office for National Statistics (ONS) country-of-birth and 2011 census data by year, age, sex, geographic region of birth and ethnicity. Between 1997 to 2018, 403,768 migrants (2.51% of the CPRD GOLD population) were identified: 178,749 (1.11%) had foreign-country-of-birth or visa -status codes, 216,731 (1.35%) non-English-main/first-language codes, and 8288 (0.05%) non-UK-origin codes. The cohort was similarly distributed versus ONS data by sex and region of birth. Migration recording improved over time and younger migrants were better represented than those aged ≥50. The validated phenotype identified a large migrant cohort for use in migration health research in CPRD GOLD to inform healthcare policy and practice. The under-recording of migration status in earlier years and older ages necessitates cautious interpretation of future studies in these groups.

Author(s):  
Neha Pathak ◽  
Claire X Zhang ◽  
Yamina Boukari ◽  
Rachel Burns ◽  
Rohini Mathur ◽  
...  

International migrants comprised 14% of the UK population in 2020, but migrant health in the UK has rarely been studied at a population level using primary care electronic health records (EHRs). Given the difficulty of determining migration status using EHRs, this study developed a migration phenotype and assessed its validity. We developed a phenotyping algorithm using codes for country of birth, visa status, non-English main/first language and non-UK origin. It was applied to a Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD database of 16,071,111 primary care patients between 1997 and 2018. We compared the completeness and representativeness of the identified migrant population to Office for National Statistics (ONS) country of birth and 2011 census data by year, age, sex, geographic region of birth and ethnicity. Between 1997-2018, 403,768 migrants (2.51% of the CPRD GOLD population) were identified using the phenotype. 178,749 (1.11%) of these migrants were identified by codes indicating foreign country of birth or visa status, 216,731 (1.35%) a non-English main/first language, and 8,288 (0.05%) non-UK origin. The cohort was similarly distributed compared to ONS migration statistics in terms of sex and region of birth. Recording of migration improved from identifying approximately one-tenth of the expected proportion of migrants according to the ONS in 2004 to a quarter in 2018. Younger migrants were better represented than those aged 50 and over. The migration phenotype identified a large number of migrants and can be used to undertake large-scale migration health research in CPRD GOLD to inform healthcare policy, practice and action. While the cohort was representative of the UK migrant population in terms of sex and region of birth, migration status was under-recorded in earlier years and older ages, and future studies for these groups should therefore be interpreted with caution.


2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (suppl 1) ◽  
pp. bjgp18X696749 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maimoona Hashmi ◽  
Mark Wright ◽  
Kirin Sultana ◽  
Benjamin Barratt ◽  
Lia Chatzidiakou ◽  
...  

BackgroundChronic Obstructive Airway Disease (COPD) is marked by often severely debilitating exacerbations. Efficient patient-centric research approaches are needed to better inform health management primary-care.AimThe ‘COPE study’ aims to develop a method of predicting COPD exacerbations utilising personal air quality sensors, environmental exposure modelling and electronic health records through the recruitment of patients from consenting GPs contributing to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD).MethodThe study made use of Electronic Healthcare Records (EHR) from CPRD, an anonymised GP records database to screen and locate patients within GP practices in Central London. Personal air monitors were used to capture data on individual activities and environmental exposures. Output from the monitors were then linked with the EHR data to obtain information on COPD management, severity, comorbidities and exacerbations. Symptom changes not equating to full exacerbations were captured on diary cards. Linear regression was used to investigate the relationship between subject peak flow, symptoms, exacerbation events and exposure data.ResultsPreliminary results on the first 80 patients who have completed the study indicate variable susceptibility to environmental stressors in COPD patients. Some individuals appear highly susceptible to environmental stress and others appear to have unrelated triggers.ConclusionRecruiting patients through EHR for a study is feasible and allows easy collection of data for long term follow up. Portable environmental sensors could now be used to develop personalised models to predict risk of COPD exacerbations in susceptible individuals. Identification of direct links between participant health and activities would allow improved health management thus cost savings.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Shallcross ◽  
Patrick Rockenschaub ◽  
Ruth Blackburn ◽  
Irwin Nazareth ◽  
Nick Freemantle ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundResearch has questioned the safety of delaying or withholding antibiotics for suspected urinary tract infection (UTI) in older patients. We evaluated the association between antibiotic treatment for lower UTI and risk of bloodstream infection (BSI) in adults aged ≥65 years in primary care.MethodsWe analysed primary care records from patients aged ≥65 years in England with community-onset UTI using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (2007-2015) linked to Hospital Episode Statistics and census data. The primary outcome was BSI within 60 days, comparing patients treated immediately with antibiotics and those not treated immediately.Findings147,334 patients were included representing 280,462 episodes of lower UTI. BSI occurred in 0·4% (1,025 / 244,963) of UTI episodes with immediate antibiotics versus 0·6% (228 / 35,499) of episodes without immediate antibiotics. The odds of BSI were equivalent in patients who were not treated with antibiotics immediately and those who were treated on the date of their UTI consultation (adjusted odds ratio aOR 1·13; 95%-CI: 0·97-1·31). However, delaying or withholding antibiotics was associated with increased odds of death in the subsequent 60 days (aOR 1·17; 95% CI: 1·09-1·26).InterpretationEvidence on the safety of delaying or withholding antibiotics in older adults with suspected UTI is conflicting. Given the prevalence of asymptomatic bacteriuria in this population, their risk of antibiotic-related side effects, and the public health need to tackle antibiotic resistance, we recommend a trial to address this uncertainty.


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.


BMJ Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. e036975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin C Gulliford ◽  
Xiaohui Sun ◽  
Judith Charlton ◽  
Joanne R Winter ◽  
Catey Bunce ◽  
...  

ObjectiveThis study evaluated whether serious bacterial infections are more frequent at family practices with lower antibiotic prescribing rates.DesignCohort study.Setting706 UK family practices in the Clinical Practice Research Datalink from 2002 to 2017.Participants10.1 million registered patients with 69.3 million patient-years’ follow-up.ExposuresAll antibiotic prescriptions, subgroups of acute and repeat antibiotic prescriptions, and proportion of antibiotic prescriptions associated with specific-coded indications.Main outcome measuresFirst episodes of serious bacterial infections. Poisson models were fitted adjusting for age group, gender, comorbidity, deprivation, region and calendar year, with random intercepts representing family practice-specific estimates.ResultsThe age-standardised antibiotic prescribing rate per 1000 patient-years increased from 2002 (male 423; female 621) to 2012 (male 530; female 842) before declining to 2017 (male 449; female 753). The median family practice had an antibiotic prescribing rate of 648 per 1000 patient-years with 95% range for different practices of 430–1038 antibiotic prescriptions per 1000 patient-years. Specific coded indications were recorded for 58% of antibiotic prescriptions at the median family practice, the 95% range at different family practices was from 10% to 75%. There were 139 759 first episodes of serious bacterial infection. After adjusting for covariates and the proportion of coded consultations, there was no evidence that serious bacterial infections were lower at family practices with higher total antibiotic prescribing. The adjusted rate ratio for 20% higher total antibiotic prescribing was 1.03, (95% CI 1.00 to 1.06, p=0.074).ConclusionsWe did not find population-level evidence that family practices with lower total antibiotic prescribing might have more frequent occurrence of serious bacterial infections overall. Improving the recording of infection episodes has potential to inform better antimicrobial stewardship in primary care.


JAMIA Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vaclav Papez ◽  
Maxim Moinat ◽  
Stefan Payralbe ◽  
Folkert W Asselbergs ◽  
R Thomas Lumbers ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective The aim of the study was to transform a resource of linked electronic health records (EHR) to the OMOP common data model (CDM) and evaluate the process in terms of syntactic and semantic consistency and quality when implementing disease and risk factor phenotyping algorithms. Materials and Methods Using heart failure (HF) as an exemplar, we represented three national EHR sources (Clinical Practice Research Datalink, Hospital Episode Statistics Admitted Patient Care, Office for National Statistics) into the OMOP CDM 5.2. We compared the original and CDM HF patient population by calculating and presenting descriptive statistics of demographics, related comorbidities, and relevant clinical biomarkers. Results We identified a cohort of 502 536 patients with the incident and prevalent HF and converted 1 099 195 384 rows of data from 216 581 914 encounters across three EHR sources to the OMOP CDM. The largest percentage (65%) of unmapped events was related to medication prescriptions in primary care. The average coverage of source vocabularies was >98% with the exception of laboratory tests recorded in primary care. The raw and transformed data were similar in terms of demographics and comorbidities with the largest difference observed being 3.78% in the prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Conclusion Our study demonstrated that the OMOP CDM can successfully be applied to convert EHR linked across multiple healthcare settings and represent phenotyping algorithms spanning multiple sources. Similar to previous research, challenges mapping primary care prescriptions and laboratory measurements still persist and require further work. The use of OMOP CDM in national UK EHR is a valuable research tool that can enable large-scale reproducible observational research.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin C Gulliford ◽  
Xiaohui Sun ◽  
Thamina Anjuman ◽  
Eleanor Yelland ◽  
Tarita Murray-Thomas

ABSTRACTObjectiveWe evaluated whether recording of antibiotic prescribing across two primary care electronic health record (EHR) systems is similar. Data were analysed from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) databases: CPRD GOLD (Vision data) and CPRD Aurum (EMIS data).MethodsCohorts of patients were randomly sampled from both databases, stratifying by general practice, age-group and gender. All antibiotic prescriptions in 2017 were identified. Age- and sex-standardised antibiotic prescribing rates per 1,000 person years were calculated. Prescribing of individual antibiotic products and associated medical diagnosis recorded on the same date was also evaluated. English CPRD GOLD general practices were analysed as a subgroup, because all CPRD Aurum practices sampled were in England.ResultsThere were 101,360 antibiotic prescriptions among 158,305 sampled patients at 883 CPRD Aurum practices, and 112,931 prescriptions among 160,394 sampled patients at 290 CPRD GOLD practices. The age- and sex-standardised antibiotic prescribing rate in 2017 was 512.6 (95% confidence interval 510.4 to 514.9) per 1,000 person years in CPRD Aurum and 584.3 (582.1 to 586.5) per 1,000 person years in CPRD GOLD [505.2 (501.6 to 508.9) per 1,000 person years if restricted to practices in England]. The 25 most frequently prescribed antibiotic products were similar in both databases. One or more medical codes were recorded on the same date as an antibiotic prescription for 72,989 (74%) prescriptions in CPRD Aurum, 84,756 (78%) in CPRD GOLD, and 28,471 (78%) for CPRD GOLD in England. Skin, respiratory and genito-urinary tract infections were recorded for 39,035 (40%) prescriptions in CPRD Aurum, 41,326 (38%) in CPRD GOLD, with 15,481 (42%) in English CPRD GOLD practices only.ConclusionSimilar estimates for antibiotic prescribing and infection recording were found for both databases suggesting similar recording across EMIS and Vision systems. Future research on antimicrobial stewardship can be conducted in CPRD Aurum informed by previous results from CPRD GOLD. It may also be possible to combine CPRD GOLD and CPRD Aurum data in research on antibiotic prescribing.


Open Heart ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. e000935
Author(s):  
Alex Bottle ◽  
Dani Kim ◽  
Paul P Aylin ◽  
F Azeem Majeed ◽  
Martin R Cowie ◽  
...  

ObjectiveTo describe associations between initial management of people presenting with heart failure (HF) symptoms in primary care, including compliance with the recommendations of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and subsequent unplanned hospitalisation for HF and death.MethodsThis is a retrospective cohort study using data from general practices submitting records to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. The cohort comprised patients diagnosed with HF during 2010–2013 and presenting to their general practitioners with breathlessness, fatigue or ankle swelling.Results13 897 patients were included in the study. Within the first 6 months, only 7% had completed the NICE-recommended pathway; another 18.6% had followed part of it (B-type natriuretic peptide testing and/or echocardiography, or specialist referral). Significant differences in hazards were seen in unadjusted analysis in favour of full or partial completion of the NICE-recommended pathway. Covariate adjustment attenuated the relations with death much more than those for HF admission. Compared with patients placed on the NICE pathway, treatment with HF medications had an HR of 1.16 (95% CI 1.05 to 1.28, p=0.003) for HF admission and 1.03 (95% CI 0.90 to 1.17, p= 0.674) for death. Patients who partially followed the NICE pathway had similar hazards to those who completed it. Patients on no pathway had the highest hazard for HF admission at 1.30 (95% 1.18 to 1.43, p<0.001) but similar hazard for death.ConclusionsPatients not put on at least some elements of the NICE-recommended pathway had significantly higher risk of HF admission but non-significant higher risk of death than other patients had.


2020 ◽  
pp. BJGP.2020.0890
Author(s):  
Vadsala Baskaran ◽  
Fiona Pearce ◽  
Rowan H Harwood ◽  
Tricia McKeever ◽  
Wei Shen Lim

Background: Up to 70% of patients report ongoing symptoms four weeks after hospitalisation for pneumonia, and the impact on primary care is poorly understood. Aim: To investigate the frequency of primary care consultations after hospitalisation for pneumonia, and the reasons for consultation. Design: Population-based cohort study. Setting: UK primary care database of anonymised medical records (Clinical Practice Research Datalink, CPRD) linked to Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), England. Methods: Adults with the first ICD-10 code for pneumonia (J12-J18) recorded in HES between July 2002-June 2017 were included. Primary care consultation within 30 days of discharge was identified as the recording of any medical Read code (excluding administration-related codes) in CPRD. Competing-risks regression analyses were conducted to determine the predictors of consultation and antibiotic use at consultation; death and readmission were competing events. Reasons for consultation were examined. Results: Of 56,396 adults, 55.9% (n=31,542) consulted primary care within 30 days of discharge. The rate of consultation was highest within 7 days (4.7 per 100 person-days). The strongest predictor for consultation was a higher number of primary care consultations in the year prior to index admission (adjusted sHR 8.98, 95% CI 6.42-12.55). The commonest reason for consultation was for a respiratory disorder (40.7%, n=12,840), 12% for pneumonia specifically. At consultation, 31.1% (n=9,823) received further antibiotics. Penicillins (41.6%, n=5,753) and macrolides (21.9%, n=3,029) were the commonest antibiotics prescribed. Conclusion: Following hospitalisation for pneumonia, a significant proportion of patients consulted primary care within 30 days, highlighting the morbidity experienced by patients during recovery from pneumonia.


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