[The prevalence of diabetes in Denmark. Development of a method for a registry-based assessment].
BACKGROUND
The prevalence of diabetes in Denmark is unknown. The purpose of the present article was to describe the possibilities of developing a method to identify individuals with diagnosed diabetes in Denmark on the basis of existing national registers.


METHODS
Record linkage of data from The Danish National Hospital Register, The Danish National Health Service Register and The Register of Medicinal Product Statistics.


RESULTS
A minimum of 130,000 individuals in Denmark are estimated to have diabetes as on December 31, 1999.


CONCLUSIONS
The possibility of developing a monitoring programme from existing data in registers seems to be present. If a validated monitoring programme is developed, this can not only be used to estimate the prevalence of diabetes, but also for a continuous monitoring of diabetes-related services.
Drivsholm
Thomas B
TB
Central Forskningsenhed for Almen Praksis, Panum Instituttet, Københavns Universitet, DK-2200 København N. td@gpract.ku.dk
Frederiksen
Kirsten
K
de Fine Olivarius
Niels
N
Ødegaard
Bettina
B
Kristensen
Jette Kolding
JK
D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000032:analysis; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008498:Medical Record Linkage / Q000379:methods*; D015995:Prevalence; D012042:Registries
D001786:Blood Glucose