title: Comparability of the age and sex distribution of the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink and the total Dutch population.
abstract: The UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) is increasingly being used by Dutch researchers in epidemiology and pharmacoepidemiology. It is however unclear if the UK CPRD is representative of the Dutch population and whether study results would apply to the Dutch population. Therefore, as first step, our objective was to compare the age and sex distribution of the CPRD with the total Dutch population.
  
  
  
  As a measure of representativeness, the age and sex distribution of the UK CPRD were visually and numerically compared with Dutch census data from the StatLine database of the Dutch National Bureau of Statistics in 2011.
  
  
  
  The age distribution of men and women in the CPRD population was comparable to the Dutch male and female population. Differences of more than 10% only occurred in older age categories (75+ in men and 80+ in women).
  
  
  
  Results from observational studies that have used CPRD data are applicable to the Dutch population, and a useful resource for decision making in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, differences in drug exposure likelihood between countries should be kept in mind, as these could still cause variations in the actual population studied, thereby decreasing its generalizability. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, VieCuri Medical Centre, Venlo, The Netherlands.|Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, GROW School for Oncology and Developmental Biology, Maastricht University Medical Centre+, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Roy G P J
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.affiliation: Clinical Practice Research Datalink, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, London, United Kingdom.|Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Arlene M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gallagher
authors.affiliation: Clinical Practice Research Datalink, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, London, United Kingdom.|Department of Non-communicable Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Herrett
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University Medical Centre+, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ad A M
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Masclee
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, GROW School for Oncology and Developmental Biology, Maastricht University Medical Centre+, Maastricht, The Netherlands.|Department of Clinical Epidemiology, VieCuri Medical Centre, Venlo, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Maryska L G
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Janssen-Heijnen
authors.affiliation: Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.|Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Toxicology, Maastricht University Medical Centre+, Maastricht, The Netherlands.|Department of Health Services Research, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University Medical Centre+, Maastricht, The Netherlands.|MRC Life-course Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: de Vries
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019352:Censuses; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D000068598:Data Accuracy; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D017891:Pharmacoepidemiology / Q000379:methods*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: database; epidemiology; pharmacoepidemiology; population-based; representativeness