Table 1. Characteristics of the databases in the EU-ADR network.
| CHARACTERISTICS | Pedianet (Italy) | HSD (Italy) | Lombardy Regional (Italy) | Tuscany Regional (Italy) | IPCI (Netherlands) | PHARMO (Netherlands) | QRESEARCH* (UK) | Aarhus (Denmark) |
| Current source population | 160,000 children | 1,500,000 | 9,000,000 | 3,500,000 | 1,500,000 | 3,000,000 | 4,000,000 | 1,800,000 |
| Years covered for this study | 2003–2007 | 2003–2007 | 2003–2005 | 2003–2006 | 1996–2006 | 1998–2007 | 2000–2007 | 2001–2006 |
| Type of database | General Practice pediatric database | General Practice database | Administrative | Administrative | General Practice database | Hybrid(administrativeand medicalrecord/registries) | General Practice database | Administrative |
| Age range | 0–14 | From 15 onwards | All ages | All ages | All ages | All ages | All ages | All ages |
| % Males | 52.2 | 47.2 | 48.8 | 48.1 | 49.6 | 45.8 | 49.6 | 49.9 |
| Demographic information available | ||||||||
| Date of registration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Date of transferring out | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Date of birth | MM-YY | MM-YY | DD-MM-YY | DD-MM-YY | MM-YY | DD-MM-YY | YY | MM-YY |
| Gender | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ethnicity/Race | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Drug information available | ||||||||
| Product coding | MINSAN | MINSAN | MINSAN | MINSAN | HPK | Z index | EMIS | VAerets |
| Active international principlecoding system | ATC | ATC | ATC | ATC | ATC | ATC | BNF | ATC |
| Date of prescription/dispensing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dosing regimen | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Quantity | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Indication of use | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes for in-hospital | No | Yes |
| Outcome information available | ||||||||
| Symptoms (Yes/No) | Yes, as free text/codes | Yes, as freetext/codes | No | No | Yes, as freetext/codes | Yes for some | Yes, as codes | No |
| Outpatient primarycare diagnoses | Yes, as free text/codes | Yes Freetext/codes | No | No | Yes, as freetext/codes | No | Yes | No |
| Outpatient specialistcare diagnoses | Yes, as free text/codes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Hospital discharge diagnoses | Yes, as free text/codes | Yes, as freetext/codes | Yes | Yes | Yes, as freetext/codes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Diagnosis coding scheme | ICD-9CM | ICD-9CM | ICD-9CM | ICD-9CM | ICPC | ICD-9CM | RCD | ICD-10 |
| Diagnostic procedures | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes for in-hospital interventions | Yes | Yes, in-hospital only |
| Laboratory tests | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes subset | Yes | Yes, in-hospital only |
Legend:
ICPC: International Classification of Primary Care.
ICD9-CM: International Classification of Diseases –9th revision Clinical Modification.
RCD: READ CODE Classification.
ICD-10: International Classification of Diseases –10th revision.
MINSAN: Italian Ministry of Health.
NOTE: * QRESEARCH did not contribute data for the analyses described in this paper.