[A method for studying social security records in epidemiology. Use in a study on the prognosis of chronic bronchitis...

A method is presented to study, in an epidemiological research, the social security records. This study is based upon records of workers affiliated to the french social security general system. To obtain data which may be compared, it was necessary to take the legislation as a basis; this legislation gives the data which must be in the records. A study of laws and rules has been done to find out these data in the medical record and in the administrative one. A questionnaire is presented. This basic questionnaire should be modified according to the precise objectives of each study and to the characteristics of the population sample. To illustrate this method, some results of a study of chronic bronchitis risk factors are presented in the second part. These results concern 950 men, born in France, aged 30 to 59 in 1960 an still alive in 1972. The study of the long reductions of the ability to work, happened from 1960 to 1971, confirm the disabling character of the group "chronic bronchitis, asthma, emphysema, respiratory insufficiency" which follows immediately cardiovascular and rheumatic diseases. The total number of beneficiaries of the social security is already very important and the whole population will be soon concerned. The use of the social security records as data source could give very interesting informations about morbidity. So, it is possible to study representative samples of the general population or of some particular groups, which has up to now, been done only in a slight extent.