THIN Database Research Team
The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database is a large UK primary care database. The user-group uses this database, containing data collected from over 450 general practitioners spread over the UK, for research into cardiovascular disease, mental health, pharmacoepidemiology and other fields of primary care research (see publications for more examples)
News & Events
Next PDUG meeting: 22 May - SIDIAP: a Spanish primary care database
Published 10/04/2013
Our next Primary Care Database User Group meeting will be on 22 May, from 3.30-5.00 pm at the Royal Free. Dr Dani Prieto-Alhambra will tell us all about the SIDIAP database, a primary care database containing electronic health records on 274 primary care practices in Catalonia, Spain. More information will soon be available our events pages.
The slides from our last meeting, where Dr Anoop Shah presented his Freetext Matching Algorithm (FMA), are uploaded to our publications page. His paper on the FMA and the program itself can be downloaded from BioMed Central.
The Primary Care Database User Group (PDUG) organises a monthly seminar
at the Royal Free Hospital. For more information on the PDUG you can sign up to the mailing list.
THIN in the news: Decline in recorded childhood epilepsy
Published 04/02/2013
Our second paper of 2013 is making headlines already: as the BBC reports, a study using THIN found that recorded epilepsy in children has been declining over time. The incidence, or number of new diagnoses, in children aged 0-14 years decreased 33% to 47% from 1994-1996 to 2003-2005, depending on how epilepsy was defined.
By the time children were 5 years old, 1.0% of the children born in 1994-96 were diagnosed with epilepsy. For children born between 2003 and 2005 this was only 0.53%.
The decrease in children with epilepsy can be linked to several recent developments, such as vaccinations against meningitis, a drop in children with traumatic brain injuries and new NICE guidelines that have reduced the chance of misdiagnosis. Several other countries have seen a similar drop in recent years.
The study is part of Wilhemine Meeraus' PhD project into adverse paediatric outcomes of antibiotic treatment in pregnancy.
The Royal Free Hospital - picture courtesy of Paolo Margari
Page last modified on 17 apr 13 11:27 by Linda Wijlaars
