Health care trajectories and medication consumption of substance users in treatment : linking TDI and IMA databases (Belgium) De Ridder Karin, Antoine Jérôme, Gremeaux Lies, Plettinckx Els, Blanckaert Peter, Tafforeau Jean. WIV-ISP | Rue Juliette Wytsmanstraat 14 | 1050 Brussels | Belgium T | | site web: Background Problem substance use has a relative low prevalence and is often socially stigmatised: health care trajectories and medication consumption among substance users are notoriously difficult to study The Belgian Treatment Demand Indicator register (TDI): An European standardized tool collecting information on substance users getting in contact with health professionals (tdi.wiv-isp.be) Linkage with the health care and prescription register of the Belgian national compulsory health insurance (IMA)( to create a data source in which longitudinal and case-control research on medication consumption and health care trajectories among substance users in treatment can be performedwww.ima-aim.be Methods TDI register: Registration of every new treatment episode started in a treatment centre for alcohol or illicit drug abuse Limitation: only new treatment episodes for substance use are registered and as such, it should be considered as an incidence register. On its own, it can’t serve as source for longitudinal studies on the individual level nor case-control studies. Extraction of records from centres specialized in treatment of drug addiction, some centres of mental health and general or psychiatric hospitals from 2011 until 2014 Data on the client's socio-demographic profile, substance use pattern and treatment information IMA databases Data from seven Belgian Health Insurance Organizations in three national databases: (1) population database with socio-demographic data, (2) health care database with administrative information on reimbursed health care provision (3) Farmanet database with data on reimbursed prescriptions Limitation: difficult to identify patients with substance use problem Extraction of selected data related to socio-demography, health care and prescriptions from 2008 until TDI IMA 2017 Time periods of data used in linkage: Results 69% (N=34,628) of the TDI records have a unique NIN and are eligible for linkage with the three IMA databases (table 1) Among them, 75% were male (figure 1), mean age was 36.5 years and 94% were Belgian citizens Besides the 41% in treatment for primary substance “alcohol”, 21% of the clients reported to be in treatment for cannabis, followed by opiates (17%), cocaine (9%) and stimulants other than cocaine (7%) (figure 2) In 46% of the cases, the clients were registered in an outpatient treatment program, while 54% were in inpatient health care Identification type Year of treatment start Total National identification number (NIN) 5,510 (77%) 7,657 (75%) 10,059 (70%) 11,402 (61%) 34,628 (69%) Other non unique identification type 1,6682,5754,3327,08815,663 (31%) Total7,17810,2321,439118,49050,291 (100%) Table 1 : Number of patients (first treatment episode registered by patient) in the TDI database (Year of treatment start and identification type are indicated) Figure 1 : Proportion of TDI patients eligible for linkage by age categories and sex Figure 2: Proportion of TDI patients eligible for linkage by primary substance used Conclusions A linkage of TDI and IMA databases will result in the first large-scaled longitudinal database in the Belgian drug epidemiology Covers a 10-years period and enables a comparison with a matched control group Individual and treatment centres characteristics can be taken into account First crucial practical steps: Recoding the project ID code used in TDI back to the NIN Evaluate the linkage rate between TDI and IMA registers Linkage Both registers will be linked by a coded version of the patient’s unique national identification number (NIN). In the TDI register, the use of this NIN is not mandatory, so a selection of records has to be made A Trusted Third Party (eHealth) is to decode, link and recode the NIN in order to link both registers Case-control matching (1:4) Aim: comparison of medical consumption of persons in drug treatment with persons who did not enter into drug treatment Each TDI case will be matched by sex, age and municipality with four control persons from the IMA population database who have no administrative registrations of treatment for substance addiction in the IMA registers and TDI register Privacy commission Approved by the Privacy Commission (SCSZG/15/033) Progression The linkage will be executed from autumn 2015 with a yearly update with IMA data, up to and including the administrative registration year 2017