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The Copenhagen Primary Care Differential Count (CopDiff) database
Christen Lykkegaard Andersen1, Volkert Dirk Siersma2, Willy Karlslund2
1The Research Unit for General Practice and Section of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark ; Department of Hematology, Roskilde University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Insights
This study describes the Copenhagen Primary Care Differential Count database, a valuable resource linking blood cell counts to health outcomes. The database aids research into disease associations and patient comorbidities.
Area of Science:
- Clinical Medicine
- Biostatistics
- Public Health
Background:
- Differential blood cell counts offer critical health insights.
- Integrating blood tests with biochemical data reveals physiological and pathophysiological relationships.
- Research databases are needed to link these parameters with comorbidities and future disease risks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the methodological construction of the Copenhagen Primary Care Differential Count database.
- To describe the characteristics of the population and variables within the database.
- To provide examples of database utilization to encourage collaborative research.
Main Methods:
- The Copenhagen Primary Care Differential Count database was established using results from the Copenhagen General Practitioners' Laboratory.
- It includes over 1.3 million differential blood cell counts from July 2000 to January 2010.
- The database is linked with Danish national health registries for comprehensive data.
Main Results:
- The database covers approximately 1.2 million inhabitants.
- It contains extensive differential blood cell count data and other blood analyses.
- Data linkage includes cancer, patient, civil registration, and cause of death registries.
Conclusions:
- The paper details the database's creation and data characteristics.
- It highlights the potential for exploring associations between blood counts, comorbidities, and health outcomes.
- Examples are provided to inspire collaborative research using this resource.
Background:
The differential blood cell count provides valuable information about a person's state of health. Together with a variety of biochemical variables, these analyses describe important physiological and pathophysiological relations. There is a need for research databases to explore associations between these parameters, concurrent comorbidities, and future disease outcomes.
Methods And Results:
The Copenhagen General Practitioners' Laboratory is the only laboratory serving general practitioners in the Copenhagen area, covering approximately 1.2 million inhabitants. The Copenhagen General Practitioners' Laboratory has registered all analytical results since July 1, 2000. The Copenhagen Primary Care Differential Count database contains all differential blood cell count results (n=1,308,022) from July 1, 2000 to January 25, 2010 requested by general practitioners, along with results from analysis of various other blood components. This data set is merged with detailed data at a person level from The Danish Cancer Registry, The Danish National Patient Register, The Danish Civil Registration System, and The Danish Register of Causes of Death.
Conclusion:
This paper reviews methodological issues behind the construction of the Copenhagen Primary Care Differential Count database as well as the distribution of characteristics of the population it covers and the variables that are recorded. Finally, it gives examples of its use as an inspiration to peers for collaboration.
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