Health care planning demands knowledge of the burden of disease within a population. For cost reasons, classical epidemiological studies are not able to be carried out to the required extent. Therefore, methods must be developed that enable conclusions to be drawn from routinely collected health data about the epidemiological situation. Owing to the lack of standardized diagnostic coding in the outpatient sector in Austria this can only be achieved by indirect means.
ATC-ICD
In the DEXHELPP project "Comparison of Methods in Epidemiology from Routine Data" a comparison between diabetes prevalences*, estimated by the following three methods, was conducted using different data sources for the years 2006 and 2007.