Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: Retrospective databases offer diverse opportunities for health outcomes, pharmacoepidemiology, and pharmacy practice researchers to conduct observational studies. This study aims 1) to assess types of retrospective databases used in articles published in 3 pharmacy journals in 2020-2024. 2) quantify types of databases used and countries of origin.
METHODS: We evaluated all database studies published between January 2020 and December 2024 in the Journal of the American Pharmacist Association (JAPhA), Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy (RSAP), and Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety (PDS). Single-center studies using electronic health records, randomized controlled trials, and non-longitudinal non-national survey-based research articles were excluded. Articles were assessed by 2 reviewers and a decision for inclusion was made via consensus. All included articles were analyzed to identify the type of database used, sample size, country of origin and the research question addressed.
RESULTS: A total of 626 articles met the inclusion criteria. The studies used the following databases: insurance claims (n=322) population electronic health record (EHR) registries (n=81), administrative registries (n=53), national surveys (n=42), United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) databases and registries (n=38), prospective cohort data (n=30), adverse drug reaction registries (n=25), state prescription drug monitoring program databases (n=20), oncology registries (n=20), disease specific registries (n=18), pregnancy registries (n=9), other type of databases (n=9), toxicology registries (n=7), immunization registries (n=4), adverse vaccine reaction registries (n=3). Articles utilized databases and registries from 37 different countries.
CONCLUSIONS: Retrospective secondary databases offer readily available real-world data for health outcomes, pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacy practice research. Most frequently used database in this study was insurance claims. Despite valuable insights that can be gained from other types of database studies such as longitudinal national surveys, longitudinal prospective cohort databases - these were used much less frequently among the studies published in the three pharmacy journals during 2020-2024.