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Validation of The Health Improvement Network (THIN) primary care database for monitoring prescriptions for smoking cessation medications
Author(s) -
Langley Tessa E.,
Szatkowski Lisa,
Gibson Jack,
Huang Yue,
McNeill Ann,
Coleman Tim,
Lewis Sarah
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.023
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1099-1557
pISSN - 1053-8569
DOI - 10.1002/pds.1960
Subject(s) - medicine , smoking cessation , medical prescription , nicotine replacement therapy , varenicline , bupropion , primary care , pharmacoepidemiology , socioeconomic status , population , family medicine , emergency medicine , environmental health , pharmacology , pathology
Abstract Purpose Evaluation of tobacco policy requires high quality and timely data on smoking cessation behaviour in the general population and in relevant target groups. Electronic primary care databases have the potential to provide a valuable source of data due to their size and continuity, and the availability of demographic and socioeconomic data. We therefore sought to investigate whether The Health Improvement Network (THIN) prescribing data are complete and can therefore be used to monitor trends in the prescribing of smoking cessation medications. Methods The THIN smoking cessation medication prescriptions data for England were compared with smoking cessation medication dispensing data from NHS Prescription Services for January 2004 to December 2005. Results Throughout the period the rates of prescribing and dispensing were very similar, both for nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and bupropion combined, and for each type of medication alone. For NRT, dispensing exceeded recorded GP prescribing by 5.5% during the study period. For bupropion, prescribing exceeded dispensing by 5%. Conclusions THIN prescribing and national dispensing data are highly comparable. THIN prescribing data could potentially be used to monitor longitudinal trends in prescribing for smoking cessation medications. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.