A comparison of the recording of 30 common childhood conditions in the Doctor's Independent Network and General Practice Research Databases

S De Wilde; I M Carey; S A Bremner; N Richards; S R Hilton; D P Strachan; D G Cook

A comparison of the recording of 30 common childhood conditions in the Doctor's Independent Network and General Practice Research Databases

Health Stat Q. 2004 Summer:(22):21-31.

Authors

S De Wilde¹, I M Carey, S A Bremner, N Richards, S R Hilton, D P Strachan, D G Cook

Affiliation

¹ Department of Community Health Sciences, St George's Hospital Medical School, London.

PMID: 15704391

Abstract

In this article we compare the recording of 30 common childhood conditions in two general practice databases of anonymised computerised medical records based on fundamentally different systems--the Doctor's Independent Network (DIN) database (Torex system) and the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) (In Practice Systems). Analysing the records of all children born 1990-1993 and followed for 5 years we found comparable results for most conditions, but differences between the hierarchical structures of the diagnostic coding systems (Read in DIN, OXMIS in GPRD) led to some differences between the databases. Practice variation was marked, but comparable between databases. Variation was greatest in conditions that are poorly defined clinically.

Publication types

Comparative Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Child, Preschool
Cohort Studies
Data Collection / methods
Databases, Factual
Family Practice / statistics & numerical data*
Health Services Research / methods
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
International Classification of Diseases / statistics & numerical data*
Medical Records Systems, Computerized / statistics & numerical data*
Practice Patterns, Physicians'
Primary Health Care / statistics & numerical data
United Kingdom / epidemiology