Abstract SD-1-1
Application of National Health Insurance DATA in Disease Association Studies in Patients with Diabetes Chung-Yi Li Department and Graduate Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University
Over the past years, my co-authors and I published, using Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) data, a number of epidemiological studies that described the co-morbidity in patients with diabetes. These co-morbidities covered a wide range of diseases including macro- / micro- vascular events, neoplasm, urological / nephrological disease, neurological disorders, and psychological illnesses. Strengths of application of NHI data in epidemiological studies include population-based study design, large study sample, and lesser likelihood of selection bias. However, the accuracy of disease diagnosis and lack of certain data such as laboratory and lifestyle variables always limit the causal inference of the study findings. In this lecture, I will present first our previous studies that provided local data on the co-morbidity of patients with diabetes. Two bi-directional studies that explored the association of type 2 diabetes with depression and acute pancreatitis, respectively will then be presented in order to illustrate the usefulness of using Taiwan’s NHI data in such design. Some perspectives of claim data based studies on diabetes will also be discussed.
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