[Administrative databases as a basic tool for the epidemiology of cardiovascular diseases].
The broader availability of administrative databases, characterized by increasing data reliability, related to the various steps of the healthcare process, has became also in Italy an important resource for epidemiological studies. Specifically, the methodological developments in the handling and analysis of drug prescription files can be seen as the original and highly informative backbone of a comprehensive monitoring of healthcare delivery processes. The area of chronic cardiovascular treatments occupies a privileged space in these developments, which are illustrated in the paper, with a synthetic presentation of the methodology supported by a model analysis of the epidemiology of heart failure in a healthcare district and by a reference list which has been conceived to provide to the reader a comprehensive perspective on an area so far largely unexplored.
Laboratorio di Farmacoepidemiologia, Centro Studi SIFO, Consorzio Mario Negri Sud, S. Maria Imbaro (CH). monte@negrisud.it
Simona
S
Monte
Caterina
C
Fanizza
Marilena
M
Romero
Elisa
E
Rossi
Marisa
M
De Rosa
Gianni
G
Tognoni
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D015897:Comorbidity; D019992:Databases as Topic; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology; D012737:Sex Factors; D013959:Thyroid Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology