Table 1.
Main variables contained in French and Spanish health care databases
| Variables | Spain | France |
|---|---|---|
| Demographics | ||
| Date of registration of the patient in the information system | Yes | No |
| Date of diabetic onset | Yes (date of registration of the first diabetic episode: not necessarily means date of diabetic onset) | Necessitates algorithms to identify the first diagnosis code or the first antidiabetic drug dispensing |
| Sex | Yes | Yes |
| Birth date | Yes (year) | Yes (year) |
| Birth place | Not always | No |
| Working status | Active/retired | Active/retired |
| Pharmaceutical copayment category (proxy of socioeconomic class) | Yes | Beneficiary of the Couverture Médicale Universelle Complémentaire status for low-income patients; socioeconomic deprivation index available by geographical area |
| Living area | Basic health zone (5000–20,000 inhabitants) | Ilots Regroupés pour l’Information Statistique (IRIS): areas of 2000 inhabitants for main cities; municipalities’ boundaries in the case of <2000 habitants |
| Education level | Compulsory, high school, university; not available in Basque Country | No |
| Nationality | Yes (probably biased) | No |
| Occupation | No | Some insurance schemes correspond to specific occupations |
| Date of death | Yes | Yes |
| Cause of death | Yes (in the mortality register, ICD-10-ES) | No (being implemented) |
| Out-of-hospital examination, procedures, and health care | ||
| Code of the examination/care | Yes (ICPC-2 classification and PGD in Navarre, and ICD-9 in Basque Country) | Yes, using a specific national classification |
| Date of care | Yes | Yes |
| Physician who has prescribed | Yes | Yes |
| Health care provider | Yes | Yes |
| Results | Yes | No |
| Primary care data | ||
| Long-term disabling disease | Yes (ICPC-2 classification, PGD, and ICD-9 in Basque Country) | Yes (ICD-10) |
| Diagnosis for each visit | Yes | No |
| Date of visit | Yes | Yes |
| Physician | Yes (anonymous identifier) | Yes (identifier and specialty) |
| Clinical data (blood pressure, weight, height) | Yes | No |
| Lifestyle data (smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity) | Yes | No |
| Out-of-hospital drug dispensing* | ||
| Code of the drugs | Yes, using ATC codes, except for many but not all over-the-counter drugs | Yes, using Club Inter Pharmaceutique (CIP) codes. Over-the-counter drugs are not recorded |
| Date of dispensing | Yes | Yes |
| Number of units dispensed | Yes | Yes |
| Physician who has prescribed | Yes | Yes |
| Pharmacist provider | Yes | Yes |
| Prescription data | Yes | No |
| Hospital data | ||
| Dates of entry and of release | Yes | Yes |
| Diagnosis | Yes (ICD-9-MC at the moment of data extraction and ICD-10-ES from January 2016) | One main diagnosis ±1 related diagnosis and unlimited associated diagnoses (ICD-10) |
| Specific departments (intensive care unit, palliative care, etc) | Yes | Yes |
| Procedures | Yes, date, and codes | Yes, date, and codes |
| Exposure to expensive drugs | No | Yes, date, and code of the drug |
| Exposure to non-expensive drugs | No | No |
Note:
*
In Navarre, from 2014 onward, there was a unique database for drug dispensing, which included prescriptions.
Abbreviations: ATC, anatomical, therapeutic, chemical classification; ICD, International Classification of Diseases; ICPC-2, International Classification of Primary Care, version 2; PGD, patient general data.