van Oosten Manon J M, Logtenberg Susan J J, Edens Mireille A, Hemmelder Marc H, Jager Kitty J, Bilo Henk J G, Stel Vianda S
Department of Medical Informatics, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Department of Internal Medicine, Diakonessenhuis, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Clin Kidney J. 2020 Jun 27;14(1):84-97. doi: 10.1093/ckj/sfaa076. eCollection 2021 Jan.
Health claims databases offer opportunities for studies on large populations of patients with kidney disease and health outcomes in a non-experimental setting. Among others, their unique features enable studies on healthcare costs or on longitudinal, epidemiological data with nationwide coverage. However, health claims databases also have several limitations. Because clinical data and information on renal function are often lacking, the identification of patients with kidney disease depends on the actual presence of diagnosis codes only. Investigating the validity of these data is therefore crucial to assess whether outcomes derived from health claims data are truly meaningful. Also, one should take into account the coverage and content of a health claims database, especially when making international comparisons. In this article, an overview is provided of international health claims databases and their main publications in the area of nephrology. The structure and contents of the Dutch health claims database will be described, as well as an initiative to use the outcomes for research and the development of the Dutch Kidney Atlas. Finally, we will discuss to what extent one might be able to identify patients with kidney disease using health claims databases, as well as their strengths and limitations.
健康索赔数据库为在非实验环境中对大量肾病患者及其健康结局进行研究提供了机会。除此之外，其独特的特性使得对医疗成本或覆盖全国范围的纵向流行病学数据的研究成为可能。然而，健康索赔数据库也存在一些局限性。由于临床数据和肾功能信息常常缺失，肾病患者的识别仅依赖于诊断代码的实际存在。因此，调查这些数据的有效性对于评估从健康索赔数据得出的结果是否真正有意义至关重要。此外，尤其是在进行国际比较时，人们应该考虑健康索赔数据库的覆盖范围和内容。本文概述了国际健康索赔数据库及其在肾脏病领域的主要出版物。将描述荷兰健康索赔数据库的结构和内容，以及利用这些结果进行研究和开发荷兰肾脏图谱的一项举措。最后，我们将讨论利用健康索赔数据库识别肾病患者的能力范围，以及它们的优势和局限性。
