Comparison of the Five Danish Regions Regarding Demographic Characteristics, Healthcare Utilization, and Medication Use:A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

While Denmark is well known for its plethora of registers. Many studies are conducted on research databases that only cover parts of Denmark, and regional differences could potentially threaten these studies' external validity. The aim of this study was to assess sociodemographic and health related homogeneity of the five Danish regions.We obtained descriptive data for the five Danish regions, using publicly available data sources: Statbank Denmark, the Danish Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Medstat.dk. These data sources comprise aggregate data from four different nationwide registers: The Danish National Patient Register, The Danish Civil Registration System, The Danish Register of Medicinal Product Statistics, and The Danish National Health Service Register for Primary Care. We compared the Danish regions regarding demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, health care utilization, and use of medication. For each characteristic, one-year prevalence was obtained and analyses were performed for 2013 and 2008 to account for possible change over time.In 2013, 5,602,628 persons were living in Denmark. The mean age was 40.7 years in the entire Danish population and ranged between 39.6 to 42.4 years in the five regions (coefficient of variation between regions [CV] = 0.028). The proportion of women in Denmark was 50.4% (CV = 0.009). The proportion of residents with low education level was 28.7% (CV = 0.051). The annual number of GP contacts was 7.1 (range: 6.7-7.4, CV = 0.040), and 114 per 1,000 residents were admitted to the hospital (range: 101-131, CV = 0.107). The annual number of persons redeeming a prescription of any medication was 723 per 1,000 residents (range: 718-743, CV = 0.016). Analyses for 2008 showed comparable levels of homogeneity as for 2013.We found substantial homogeneity between all of the five Danish regions with regard to sociodemographic and health related characteristics. Epidemiologic studies conducted on regional subsets of Danish citizens have a high degree of generalizability

Socioeconomic characteristics (annual income, education, marital status, and unemployment) in proportions of the Danish population, as well as stratified by the five Danish regions in 2013.

<p>Socioeconomic characteristics (annual income, education, marital status, and unemployment) in proportions of the Danish population, as well as stratified by the five Danish regions in 2013.</p

Denmark divided into the five regions: Capital Region of Denmark, Region Zealand, Region of Southern Denmark, Central Denmark Region, Region of Northern Denmark.

<p>The figure is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license. Originally Jarke, modified by Daniel Pilsgaard Henriksen—Derived from <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Denmark_regions.svg" target="_blank">http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Denmark_regions.svg</a></p

Mean number of contacts per resident to the general practitioners divided into 10-year age categories in 2013.

<p>Mean number of contacts per resident to the general practitioners divided into 10-year age categories in 2013.</p

Medication use in the Danish population per 1,000 residents, as well as stratified by the five Danish Regions in 2013.

<p>Medication use in the Danish population per 1,000 residents, as well as stratified by the five Danish Regions in 2013.</p

Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the Danish population, as well as stratified by the five Danish regions in 2013.

<p>^a residents per km²</p><p>^b proportion of residents living in cities with ≥ 200 citizens relative to total number of residents in the Region[<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0140197#pone.0140197.ref022" target="_blank">22</a>].</p><p>Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the Danish population, as well as stratified by the five Danish regions in 2013.</p