Inferring glaucoma status from prescriptions, diagnoses, and operations data: A Danish nationwide study.

Abstract

PurposeTo assess a new method for inferring glaucoma status using prescriptions data.MethodsThe study population comprised all individuals living in Denmark in the period 1995 to 2018 and included 6,930,571 individuals. We used information from The National Prescription Registry on claimed prescriptions as the basis for our study (N = 223,592). We inferred glaucoma status using data on claimed prescriptions, in-hospital ICD-10 diagnoses, and in-hospital glaucoma surgeries. We infer glaucoma status in three ways using the prescription pattern: glaucoma inferred by (i) the use of a first claimed prescription, (ii) the use of a second claimed prescription with a gap of at least 90 days, and (iii) the use of a third claimed prescription for glaucoma medication, again with a gap of at least 90 days between prescriptions. Furthermore, we compared the results with alternative indications for glaucoma, namely in-hospital ICD-10-diagnosed glaucoma and in-hospital glaucoma surgery.ResultsWe first determined that glaucoma status could be inferred from claimed prescription data and found that a single claimed prescription was highly correlated with the more restricted composite measure of glaucoma (R2 = 0.80, p ConclusionAnti-glaucomatous medicine prescriptions can be used to infer glaucoma status, with useful implications for epidemiological research. The sensitivity is particularly high for primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG).