title: Comparison of the Five Danish Regions Regarding Demographic Characteristics, Healthcare Utilization, and Medication Use--A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  While Denmark is well known for its plethora of registers. Many studies are conducted on research databases that only cover parts of Denmark, and regional differences could potentially threaten these studies' external validity. The aim of this study was to assess sociodemographic and health related homogeneity of the five Danish regions.
  
  
  METHODS
  We obtained descriptive data for the five Danish regions, using publicly available data sources: Statbank Denmark, the Danish Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Medstat.dk. These data sources comprise aggregate data from four different nationwide registers: The Danish National Patient Register, The Danish Civil Registration System, The Danish Register of Medicinal Product Statistics, and The Danish National Health Service Register for Primary Care. We compared the Danish regions regarding demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health care utilization, and use of medication. For each characteristic, one-year prevalence was obtained and analyses were performed for 2013 and 2008 to account for possible change over time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 2013, 5,602,628 persons were living in Denmark. The mean age was 40.7 years in the entire Danish population and ranged between 39.6 to 42.4 years in the five regions (coefficient of variation between regions [CV] = 0.028). The proportion of women in Denmark was 50.4% (CV = 0.009). The proportion of residents with low education level was 28.7% (CV = 0.051). The annual number of GP contacts was 7.1 (range: 6.7-7.4, CV = 0.040), and 114 per 1,000 residents were admitted to the hospital (range: 101-131, CV = 0.107). The annual number of persons redeeming a prescription of any medication was 723 per 1,000 residents (range: 718-743, CV = 0.016). Analyses for 2008 showed comparable levels of homogeneity as for 2013.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found substantial homogeneity between all of the five Danish regions with regard to sociodemographic and health related characteristics. Epidemiologic studies conducted on regional subsets of Danish citizens have a high degree of generalizability.
authors.affiliation: Department of Respiratory Medicine, Odense University Hospital DK-5000 Odense C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Daniel Pilsgaard
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Henriksen
authors.affiliation: Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Lotte
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.affiliation: Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark; Department of Clinical Chemistry and Pharmacology, Odense University Hospital DK-5000 Odense C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Morten Rix
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark; Department of Clinical Chemistry and Pharmacology, Odense University Hospital DK-5000 Odense C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Jesper
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hallas
authors.affiliation: Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Anton
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pottegård
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009313:National Health Programs; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D055656:Prescriptions; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012042:Registries; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D055815:Young Adult