OBJECTIVES: Chronic diseases present a significant public health challenge, particularly among adult populations in Europe. The real-world data is being used more and more to study the evolution of diseases. Understanding the prevalence and trends of diabetes, hypertension, and asthma is crucial for effective healthcare planning with using RWD. Our aim was to estimate and compare the prevalence of diabetes, hypertension and asthma in five European countries (France, Spain, Belgium, Romania, and Italy) over a five-year period (2018 to 2022) using the real-world ambulatory medical database THIN®, which is GDPR compliant.

METHODS: A temporal analysis was conducted using prevalence data from the THIN database spanning from 2018 to 2022. The annual prevalence was calculated by dividing the number of patients with the diagnosis of interest (diabetes, hypertension, and asthma) on or before each year (2018 to 2022) (numerator) by the total number of active patients per year (denominator).

RESULTS: Our findings indicate significant variations in the prevalence rates of diabetes, hypertension, and asthma among the selected European countries over the study period. In 2022, diabetes prevalence ranged from 4.30% in Italy to 8.65% in Romania. Hypertension prevalence varied from 11.65% in Italy to 36.22% in Romania, while asthma prevalence ranged from 1.91% in Italy to 8.43% in France. These results highlight substantial disparities in chronic disease prevalence across the studied countries.

CONCLUSIONS: This study provides valuable insights into the prevalence of chronic diseases in the selected countries and emphasizes the need for targeted interventions and tailored healthcare approaches. Analyzing real-world data can aid in better monitoring variations in chronic diseases across Europe.