Fig. 1.

Treatment pathway event flow. The index date for each case was the time of first exposure to one of the medications deemed relevant to that disease according to the medication classes defined in Table 1. The patient had to have been observed for at least 1 y before the index date. The patient had to have at least one diagnosis code from Table 1 within the 1-y preindex to 3-y postindex period, and the patient could have no codes from the exclusions in Table 1. In addition, the patient had to have an exposure to one of the relevant medications for that disease in each 120-d period after the index date. For data sources that allowed less-frequent updates (180 d for a prescription and five refills), the windows were adjusted.