The Copenhagen Primary Care Laboratory (CopLab) Database

Abstract

Background

The Copenhagen General Practice Laboratory (CGPL) was founded in 1922 to provide paraclinical analyses to the primary health-care sector in Copenhagen. At the end of 2015, CGPL was closed and the CopLab database was established to make CGPL data available for research.

Methods

We isolated tests performed at the CGPL with clinically relevant test results. The database was linked to national registers containing health, social, and demographic information. Results are presented with descriptive statistics showing counts, percentages, medians, and interquartile ranges (IQR).

Results

The CopLab database includes 1,373,643 unique individuals from primary care with test results from laboratory analyses of blood/urine/semen as well as cardiac and lung function tests collected by CGPL from greater Copenhagen from 2000 to 2015. The CopLab database holds nearly all test results requested by general practitioners throughout years 2000 to 2015 for residents in the greater Copenhagen area. The median age of the individuals was 51 years and 59.7% were females. Each individual has a median of 4 requisitions. More than 1 million participants are currently alive and living in Denmark and may be followed in national registries such as the Danish National Patient Registry, Laboratory Database, National Prescription Database etc.

Keywords:

• laboratory database
• population-based cohort
• register studies
• clinical biochemistry
• epidemiology

Abbreviations

CGPL, Copenhagen General Practice Laboratory; GP, general practitioner; DANAK, The Danish Accreditation Fund; PIN, Personal Identification Number; DKK, Danish crowns; ISCED, International Standard Classification of Education; TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone; CLL, chronic lymphatic leukaemia.

Ethics

The study is approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency and registered in the data processing inventory of University of Copenhagen (514-0460/20-3000). Danish law does not require informed consent for registry studies using administrative data.

Acknowledgments

We thank Peter Felding and Niels de Fine Olivarius for their work in establishing the CopLab database.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.