Table 1.

Basic information of the used claims data

	2007	2008	2009	2010
Total number of insured persons	4 048 709	3 931 988	3 906 411	3 954 172
Age in years (mean)	43.0	43.5	43.7	43.7
Sex (men & women)	47.1 % & 52.9 %	47.0 % & 53.0 %	47.1 % & 52.9 %	47.2 % & 52.8 %
Number of persons insured permanently over the respective year (study population)	3 538 793	3 483 739	3 459 461	3 492 326
Proportion of the included study population compared to total number of insured persons (%)	87.4 %	88.6 %	88.6 %	88.3 %
Age in years (mean)	44.4	44.8	40.0	45.0
Sex (men & women)	46.2 % & 53.8 %	46.3 % & 53.7 %	46.4 % & 53.6 %	46.4 % & 53.6 %