Clinical Epidemiology (Mar 2024)
The Copenhagen Primary Care Laboratory (CopLab) Database
Abstract
Margit Kriegbaum,1 Bent Struer Lind,2 Mia Klinten Grand,1 Christen Lykkegaard Andersen1,3 1The Copenhagen Primary Care Laboratory (CopLab) Database, Research Unit for General Practice and Section of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; 2Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, Copenhagen, Denmark; 3Department of Haematology, University Hospital Copenhagen, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, DenmarkCorrespondence: Margit Kriegbaum, Research Unit for General Practice and Section of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 København K, Denmark, Tel +45 35337326, Fax +45 35327629, Email [email protected]: The Copenhagen General Practice Laboratory (CGPL) was founded in 1922 to provide paraclinical analyses to the primary health-care sector in Copenhagen. At the end of 2015, CGPL was closed and the CopLab database was established to make CGPL data available for research.Methods: We isolated tests performed at the CGPL with clinically relevant test results. The database was linked to national registers containing health, social, and demographic information. Results are presented with descriptive statistics showing counts, percentages, medians, and interquartile ranges (IQR).Results: The CopLab database includes 1,373,643 unique individuals from primary care with test results from laboratory analyses of blood/urine/semen as well as cardiac and lung function tests collected by CGPL from greater Copenhagen from 2000 to 2015. The CopLab database holds nearly all test results requested by general practitioners throughout years 2000 to 2015 for residents in the greater Copenhagen area. The median age of the individuals was 51 years and 59.7% were females. Each individual has a median of 4 requisitions. More than 1 million participants are currently alive and living in Denmark and may be followed in national registries such as the Danish National Patient Registry, Laboratory Database, National Prescription Database etc.Keywords: laboratory database, population-based cohort, register studies, clinical biochemistry, epidemiology