Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34078308›Full record

ArticleBMC public health2021

Mapping chronic disease prevalence based on medication use and socio-demographic variables: an application of LASSO on administrative data sources in healthcare in the Netherlands.

Koen Füssenich, Hendriek C Boshuizen, Markus M J Nielen, Erik Buskens, Talitha L Feenstra

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Article in BMC public health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

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6citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Identifying diseases in claims data using a machine learning approach - a case from Switzerland.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025
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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Koen FüssenichRIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment), Centre for Nutrition, Prevention and Health Services, P.O. Box 1, 3720, BA, Bilthoven, The Netherlands. k.fussenich@capaciteitsorgaan.nl.ORCID 0000-0003-0141-0004
Hendriek C BoshuizenRIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment), Centre for Nutrition, Prevention and Health Services, P.O. Box 1, 3720, BA, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
Markus M J NielenRIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment), Centre for Health and Society, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
Erik BuskensGroningen University, UMCG, Department of Epidemiology, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Talitha L FeenstraRIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment), Centre for Nutrition, Prevention and Health Services, P.O. Box 1, 3720, BA, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPolicymakers generally lack sufficiently detailed health information to develop localized health policy plans. Chronic disease prevalence mapping is difficult as accurate direct sources are often lacking. Improvement is possible by adding extra information such as medication use and demographic information to identify disease. The aim of the current study was to obtain small geographic area prevalence estimates for four common chronic diseases by modelling based on medication use and socio-economic variables and next to investigate regional patterns of disease.

methodsAdministrative hospital records and general practitioner registry data were linked to medication use and socio-economic characteristics. The training set (n = 707,021) contained GP diagnosis and/or hospital admission diagnosis as the standard for disease prevalence. For the entire Dutch population (n = 16,777,888), all information except GP diagnosis and hospital admission was available. LASSO regression models for binary outcomes were used to select variables strongly associated with disease. Dutch municipality (non-)standardized prevalence estimates for stroke, CHD, COPD and diabetes were then based on averages of predicted probabilities for each individual inhabitant.

resultsAdding medication use data as a predictor substantially improved model performance. Estimates at the municipality level performed best for diabetes with a weighted percentage error (WPE) of 6.8%, and worst for COPD (WPE 14.5%)Disease prevalence showed clear regional patterns, also after standardization for age.

conclusionAdding medication use as an indicator of disease prevalence next to socio-economic variables substantially improved estimates at the municipality level. The resulting individual disease probabilities could be aggregated into any desired regional level and provide a useful tool to identify regional patterns and inform local policy.

Indexed as

Delivery of Health CareInformation Storage and RetrievalChronic DiseaseHumansNetherlandsPrevalenceDisease prevalenceMachine learningSmall area estimates

Identifiers

PMID34078308
PMCPMC8170948

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.