Generalisability of The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database:demographics, chronic disease prevalence and mortality rates

The degree of generalisability of patient databases to the general population is important for interpreting database research. This report describes the representativeness of The Health Improvement Network (THIN), a UK primary care database, of the UK population.

Demographics, deprivation (Townsend), Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) condition prevalence and deaths from THIN were compared with national statistical and QOF 2006/2007 data.