Completeness, agreement, and representativeness of ethnicity recording in the United Kingdom's Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) and linked Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).

Background: This descriptive study assessed the completeness, agreement, and representativeness of ethnicity recording in the United Kingdom (UK) Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) primary care databases alone and, for those patients registered with a GP in England, when linked to secondary care data from Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).

Methods: Ethnicity records were assessed for all patients in the May 2021 builds of the CPRD GOLD and CPRD Aurum databases for all UK patients. In analyses of the UK, English data was from combined CPRD-HES, whereas data from Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales drew from CPRD only.

Relationship between heart failure and the risk of acute exacerbation of COPD.

Rationale: Heart failure (HF) management in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is often delayed or suboptimal.

Objectives: To examine the effect of HF and HF medication use on moderate-to-severe COPD exacerbations.

Methods And Measurements: Retrospective cohort studies from 2006 to 2016 using nationally representative English primary care electronic healthcare records linked to national hospital and mortality data.

Inhaled therapies for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objectives: To integrate evidence from randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies on the efficacy of inhaled treatments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using network meta-analyses.

Methods: Systematic searches MEDLINE and Embase based on predetermined criteria. Network meta-analyses of RCTs investigated efficacy on exacerbations (long-term: ≥20 weeks of treatment; short-term: <20 weeks), lung function (≥12 weeks), health-related quality of life, mortality and adverse events.

Temporal Trends in the Incidence of Heart Failure among Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Its Association with Mortality.

Heart failure (HF) is a common comorbidity in the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) population, but previous research has shown underrecognition. The objectives of this study were to determine the incidence of HF in a prevalent COPD cohort and to determine the association of incident HF with short- and long-term mortality of patients with COPD. Crude incidence of HF in the HF-naive primary care COPD population was calculated for each year from 2006 to 2016 using UK data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD).

Hospitalisation and mortality in patients with comorbid COPD and heart failure: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Discrepancy exists amongst studies investigating the effect of comorbid heart failure (HF) on the morbidity and mortality of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.

Methods: MEDLINE and Embase were searched using a pre-specified search strategy for studies comparing hospitalisation, rehospitalisation, and mortality of COPD patients with and without HF. Studies must have reported crude and/or adjusted rate ratios, risk ratios, odds ratios (OR), or hazard ratios (HR).

European Respiratory Society International Congress 2018: four shades of epidemiology and tobacco control.

In this article, early career members and experienced members of the Epidemiology and Environment Assembly of the European Respiratory Society highlight and summarise a selection of six sessions from the Society's annual congress, which in 2018 was held in Paris, France. The topics covered in these sessions span from cutting-edge molecular epidemiology of lung function to clinical, occupational and environmental epidemiology of respiratory disease, and from emergent tobacco products to tobacco control.

Protocol for a systematic literature review and network meta-analysis of the clinical benefit of inhaled maintenance therapies in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations progress the course of disease and impair lung function. Inhaled maintenance therapy reduces exacerbations. It is not yet established which inhaled therapy combination is best to reduce exacerbations, lung function decline and symptom burden.

Changing causes of death for patients with chronic respiratory disease in England, 2005-2015.

Background: Chronic respiratory diseases (CRD) are common, are increasing in prevalence, and cause significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. However, we have limited knowledge on causes of death of patients with CRD in the general population.

Objective: We evaluated mortality rates and causes of death over time in patients with CRD.

Risk factors and secondary care utilisation in a primary care population with non-tuberculous mycobacterial disease in the UK.

Prior research has identified risk factors associated with developing non-tuberculous mycobacterial disease (NTMD); we identified risk factors and secondary care utilisation of NTMD patients in the UK. This was a matched case-control study using electronic healthcare records from Clinical Practice Research Datalink from 2006 to 2016. NTMD was defined using prescription data and Read codes, based on international guidelines.

Hospitalisation and mortality outcomes of patients with comorbid COPD and heart failure: a systematic review protocol.

Introduction: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and heart failure (HF) often coexist in patients. Many studies have explored the short-term and long-term outcomes of patients with comorbid COPD and HF; however, there have been discrepancies in their findings.

Methods And Analysis: In this systematic review, MEDLINE and Embase will be searched using a prespecified search strategy.

Nontuberculous mycobacterial disease managed within UK primary care, 2006-2016.

Previous UK studies investigating nontuberculous mycobacteria have been limited to reporting isolation from culture, not burden of disease. We assessed the burden of nontuberculous mycobacterial disease (NTMD) in UK primary care from 2006 to 2016. Using electronic healthcare records, we identified patients with NTMD using a strict definition including patients with guideline-directed treatment/monitoring.