durcomp.prescribing {AdhereR}

Example prescription events for 16 patients.

Description

A sample dataset containing prescription events (one per row) for 16 patients over a period of roughly 15 months (1502 events in total). This is the appropriate format to compute event durations with the compute_event_durations function. Each row represents an individual prescription record for a specific dose of a specific medication for a patient at a given date. Visit number and Duration are optional, and more than one column to group medications can be supplied (such as ATC Code, Form or Unit).

Usage

durcomp.prescribing

Format

A data table with 1502 rows and 8 variables:

ID

integer here; patient unique identifier. Can also be string.

DATE.PRESC

Date here;the prescription event date, by default in the yyyy-mm-dd format. Can also be string.

VISIT

integer; the consecutive number of the prescription instances. This column is optional and will be generated internally when not supplied. It is used to identify treatment interruptions.

ATC.CODE

character; the medication type, according to the WHO ATC classification system. This can be a researcher-defined classification depending on study aims (e.g., based on therapeutic use, mechanism of action, chemical molecule, or pharmaceutical formulation). The compute_event_durations function will match prescribed medication to dispensed medications based on this variable.

FORM

character; the galenic form of the prescribed preparation. This is optional and can be used as a separate variable to match between prescription and dispensing events.

UNIT

integer; the unit of the prescribed dose. This is optional and can be used as a separate variable to match between prescription and dispensing events.

PRESC.DURATION

numeric; the duration (in days) for which the prescription is intended. Can be NA if the prescription is continuous without a fixed end date.

DAILY.DOSE

numeric; the daily dose prescribed during this event (e.g., 50 for 1 tablet of 50 mg per day or 25 for 1 tablet of 50 mg every two days).