The database includes information on patient demographics, outpatient drug prescriptions,

symptoms and medical diagnoses, referrals to specialists and hospitals, outpatient laboratory test results, and lifestyle factors (e.g., BMI, blood pressure, smoking, and alcohol consumption). Contributing general practitioners click here are required to meet specific recording standards to be considered “up-to-standard” (UTS). The accuracy and completeness of data held in the GPRD has been confirmed [16, 17], as well as its validity for the study of VTE [18]. As a result, the GPRD data is considered to be of sufficiently high quality for medical research. This project was approved by the Independent Scientific Advisory Committee for MHRA database research on 18 February 2008. Study design and population A retrospective cohort study was conducted on permanently registered female patients aged 50 years or older who had a general practice consultation for osteoporosis or who received at least one prescription for strontium ranelate or alendronate sodium, following the date of launch of strontium

ranelate in the UK (December 2, 2004). Only patients with 6 months of UTS follow-up before the index date were included. The study population included patients with a first ever record and patients with a history of primary osteoporosis and/or drug prescription. buy PF-4708671 The following cohorts were analysed: one cohort per anti-osteoporotic treatment consisting of new prescriptions only as proposed by Ray et al. [19]; one cohort of untreated osteoporotic patients according to anti-osteoporotic drug prescriptions; and a reference cohort of non-osteoporotic female patients, which consisted of a population-based random sample of 20% of the female aged 50 years or older since December 2, 2004 without

an osteoporosis diagnosis or an anti-osteoporotic prescription. Amrubicin The index date was the first recorded visit for osteoporosis or the first prescription of strontium ranelate or alendronate sodium following this date, whichever came first. For the non-osteoporotic cohort, the index date was a computer-generated randomly dated in the first year after study entry. Osteoporosis was defined using a list of terms in the Medical Directory for Regulatory CCI-779 Activities and then by searching and validating the corresponding codes in Read/OXMIS dictionaries used in the GPRD. For drug substances names from the World Health Organization Drug Dictionary were used to identify and validate the corresponding Multilex (UK) drug substance name, substance strength, and route of administration for product terms used in the GPRD. Exposure and outcome The period defined as follow-up was from the index date to the latest GPRD data collection or the patient’s transfer out of the practice or death, whichever came first.