Mortality in the German Pharmacoepidemiological Research Database (GePaRD) compared to national data in Germany: results from a validation study

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Rafael Mikolajczyk¹  Kathrin Hillebrand²  Niklas Schmedt³  Ingo Langner³  Christoph Ohlmeier³  Oliver Riedel³  Edeltraut Garbe⁴ 

[1] Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Inhoffestr. 7, 38124, Braunschweig, Germany;Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625, Hannover, Germany;Hubertus Wald Tumor Center - University Cancer Center Hamburg (UCCH)/University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Martinistr. 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany;Leibniz-Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Achterstr. 30, 28359, Bremen, Germany;Leibniz-Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS, Achterstr. 30, 28359, Bremen, Germany;Core Scientific Area ‘Health Sciences’ at the University of Bremen, Grazer Str. 2, 28334, Bremen, Germany;Department of Human and Health Sciences, University of Bremen, Grazer Str. 2, 28334, Bremen, Germany;

关键词: Administrative data;    Claims data;    Health insurance data;    Mortality;    Death;    Validation;    Germany;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-015-1943-7

 received in 2014-11-20, accepted in 2015-06-16,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundElectronic healthcare databases are of increasing importance in health research and mortality is one of the most relevant outcomes. However, data in these databases need to be validated, since they are often generated for reimbursement purposes. The aims of this study were to compare mortality figures from the German Pharmacoepidemiological Research Database (GePaRD) on an aggregated level with external data from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany (FSOG) and to assess consistency of records of death from core data and hospital data within GePaRD.MethodsThe study population comprised insurants of four statutory health insurances providing data for GePaRD with either continuous insurance coverage from January 1st to December 31st 2006 or until death. The sex-specific mortality rate, stratified and standardized by age, and the percentage of hospital deaths among all deaths was compared with data from the FSOG. Furthermore, the agreement between the dates of death according to hospital data and core data was assessed within GePaRD.ResultsThe study population comprised 12,033,622 insurants. Compared to FSOG data, the age-standardised mortality rate in GePaRD was 21 % and 29 % lower in women and men, respectively. Regional analyses also indicated lower mortality rates in all federal states except for Bremen, where the age-standardised mortality rate was similar to FSOG data for both sexes. The percentage of hospital deaths among all deaths corresponded well with external data. The proportion of inpatient deaths also recorded in the health insurance core data was 98.5 %. Furthermore, 94 % of dates of death documented in hospital agreed with the dates of death according to the health insurance core data.ConclusionsThe lower mortality rates in almost all federal states might result from the higher socioeconomic status of the GePaRD study population compared to the overall population in Germany. In the federal state of Bremen, where socioeconomic representativeness is higher due to additional inclusion of two local health insurances, the mortality rates were in good accordance with external data. Agreement of the percentage of hospital deaths among all deaths between GePaRD and national statistics suggested completeness of outpatient mortality information.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Ohlmeier et al. 2015. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.