Challenges of using primary care electronic medical records in the UK to study medications in pregnancy

Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety

Volumn 22, Issue 9, 2013, Pages 977-985

  Cea Soriano, Lucia ^a,b   García Rodríguez, Luis A ^a   Fernández Cantero, Oscar ^a   Hernández Díaz, Sonia ^b  

^a Department of Pharmacoepidemiology   (Spain)

^b HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH   (United States)

Author keywords

Medication; Pharmacoepidemiology; Pregnancy; THIN; Treatment patterns

Indexed keywords

AMOXICILLIN; ANALGESIC AGENT; ANTACID AGENT; ANTIALLERGIC AGENT; ANTIASTHMATIC AGENT; ANTIBIOTIC AGENT; ANTICONVULSIVE AGENT; ANTIDEPRESSANT AGENT; ANTIFUNGAL AGENT; ANTIHYPERTENSIVE AGENT; ANTIMIGRAINE AGENT; CEFALEXIN; CORTICOSTEROID; COTRIMOXAZOLE; DOXYCYCLINE; NONSTEROID ANTIINFLAMMATORY AGENT; OPIATE; ORAL ANTIDIABETIC AGENT; PARACETAMOL; PRESCRIPTION DRUG; PROKINETIC AGENT; SALBUTAMOL; TETRACYCLINE; THYROID HORMONE;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; ARTICLE; CONCEPTION; DELIVERY; ECTOPIC PREGNANCY; ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORD; FEMALE; FIRST TRIMESTER PREGNANCY; FOLLOW UP; FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION; GENERAL PRACTITIONER; HUMAN; INDUCED ABORTION; LONG TERM CARE; MAJOR CLINICAL STUDY; PALLIATIVE THERAPY; PRESCRIPTION; PRIMARY MEDICAL CARE; PRIORITY JOURNAL; READ CODE; SPONTANEOUS ABORTION; STILLBIRTH; UNITED KINGDOM;

MEDICATION; PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY; PREGNANCY; THIN; TREATMENT PATTERNS;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; COHORT STUDIES; DRUG PRESCRIPTIONS; DRUG UTILIZATION REVIEW; ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS; FEMALE; FOLLOW-UP STUDIES; GREAT BRITAIN; HUMANS; MIDDLE AGED; PHYSICIAN'S PRACTICE PATTERNS; PREGNANCY; PREGNANCY TRIMESTER, FIRST; PRESCRIPTION DRUGS; PRIMARY HEALTH CARE; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 84882631478     PISSN: 10538569     EISSN: 10991557     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/pds.3472     Document Type: Article

References (27)

1. Mitchell AA, Gilboa SM, Werler MM, Kelley KE, Louik C, Hernandez-Diaz S. Medication use during pregnancy, with particular focus on prescription drugs: 1976-2008. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2011; 205(51): e1-e8.
2. Andrade SE, Gurwitz JH, Davis RL, et al. Prescription drug use in pregnancy. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2004; 191: 398-407.
3. Olesen C, Steffensen FH, Nielsen GL, de Jong-van den Berg L, Olsen J, Sorensen HT. Drug use in first pregnancy and lactation: a population-based survey among Danish women. The EUROMAP group. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 1999; 55: 139-144.
4. Shepard TH, Brent RL, Friedman JM, et al. Update on new developments in the study of human teratogens. Teratology 2002; 65: 153-161.
5. Blak BT, Thompson M, Dattani H, Bourke A. Generalisability of The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database: demographics, chronic disease prevalence and mortality rates. Inform Prim Care 2011; 19: 251-255.
6. Stuart-Buttle CD, Read JD, Sanderson HF, Sutton YM. A language of health in action: Read Codes, classifications and groupings. Proceedings: a Conference of the American Medical Informatics Association/AMIA Annual Fall Symposium AMIA Fall Symposium 1996; 75-79.
7. First Databank. MULTILEX for Primary Care, 2010. http://www.firstdatabank.co.uk/8/multilex-drug-data-file [March 2012]
8. Hardy JR, Leaderer BP, Holford TR, Hall GC, Bracken MB. Safety of medications prescribed before and during early pregnancy in a cohort of 81, 975 mothers from the UK General Practice Research Database. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2006; 15: 555-564.
9. Andrade SE, Raebel MA, Morse AN, et al. Use of prescription medications with a potential for fetal harm among pregnant women. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2006; 15: 546-554.
10. Charlton RA, Cunnington MC, de Vries CS, Weil JG. Data resources for investigating drug exposure during pregnancy and associated outcomes: the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) as an alternative to pregnancy registries. Drug Saf 2008; 31: 39-51.
11. List of pregnancy exposure registries. http://www.fda.gov/scienceresearch/specialtopics/womenshealthresearch/ucm134848.htm [March 2012].
12. Lewis JD, Schinnar R, Bilker WB, Wang X, Strom BL. Validation studies of the health improvement network (THIN) database for pharmacoepidemiology research. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2007; 16: 393-401.
13. Bourke A, Dattani H, Robinson M. Feasibility study and methodology to create a quality-evaluated database of primary care data. Inform Prim Care 2004; 12: 171-177.
14. Sultan AA, West J, Tata LJ, Fleming KM, Nelson-Piercy C, Grainge MJ. Risk of first venous thromboembolism in and around pregnancy: a population-based cohort study. Br J Haematol 2012; 156: 366-373.
15. Tata LJ, Lewis SA, McKeever TM, et al. Effect of maternal asthma, exacerbations and asthma medication use on congenital malformations in offspring: a UK population-based study. Thorax 2008; 63: 981-987.
16. Piper JM, Ray W, Griffin MR, Fought R, Daugherty J, Mitchel E. Methodological issues in evaluating expanded Medicaid coverage for pregnant women. Am J Epidemiol 1990; 132: 561-571.
17. Toh S, Mitchell AA, Werler MM, Hernandez-Diaz S. Sensitivity and specificity of computerized algorithms to classify gestational periods in the absence of information on date of conception. Am J Epidemiol 2008; 167: 633-640.
18. National survey of women's views of maternity care. http://www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/files/downloads/reports/Maternity-Survey-Report-2010.pdf [August 2012].
19. Devine S, West S, Andrews E, et al. The identification of pregnancies within the general practice research database. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2010; 19: 45-50.
20. Hardy JR, Holford TR, Hall GC, Bracken MB. Strategies for identifying pregnancies in the automated medical records of the General Practice Research Database. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2004; 13: 749-759.
21. Tata LJ, Card TR, Logan RF, Hubbard RB, Smith CJ, West J. Fertility and pregnancy-related events in women with celiac disease: a population-based cohort study. Gastroenterology 2005; 128: 849-855.
22. Werler MM, Mitchell AA, Hernandez-Diaz S, Honein MA. Use of over-the-counter medications during pregnancy. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2005; 193: 771-777.
23. Chambers C, Koren G, Tutuncu ZN, Johnson D, Jones KL. Are new agents used to treat rheumatoid arthritis safe to take during pregnancy? Organization of Teratology Information Specialists (OTIS) study. Can Fam Physician 2007; 53: 409-412.
24. Houtchens MK, Kolb CM. Multiple sclerosis and pregnancy: therapeutic considerations. J Neurol 2012. DOI 10.1007/s00415-012-6653-9.
25. Morrow J, Russell A, Guthrie E, et al. Malformation risks of antiepileptic drugs in pregnancy: a prospective study from the UK Epilepsy and Pregnancy Register. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2006; 77: 193-198.
26. Wurst KE, Ephross SA, Loehr J, Clark DW, Guess HA. The utility of the general practice research database to examine selected congenital heart defects: a validation study. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2007; 16(8): 867-877.
27. Devine S, West SL, Andrews E, Tennis P, Eaton S, Thorp J, Olshan A. Validation of neural tube defects in the full featured-general practice research database. Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 2008; 17(5): 434-444.