Investigating the Long-Term Interaction among Pulmonary Tuberculosis and Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases with the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database

• Main Authors: Chih-Hsin Lee, 李枝新
• Other Authors: Kun-Mao Chao
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/42971474465997013808

博士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 生醫電子與資訊學研究所 === 101 === Chronic noncommunicable diseases (CNDs) have become the major cause of death and disabilities worldwide. Because of the nature course of these slowly progressing CNDs, the long-term interaction between the CNDs, their associated treatment and communicable disease (CDs) is complex. It requires large cohort with very long period of follow-up to investigate these interaction. Among the CDs, the pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death worldwide and also an important issue in public health in Taiwan. The National Health Insurance (NHI) is a mandatory nationwide health insurance program, offering comprehensive medical care coverage to more than 96% of Taiwanese residents since 1996. The NHI research database (NHIRD) provides a nationwide population suitable for such studies. However, the NHIRD contains only claim data and requires special approach to define the diagnoses of CNDs when compared with classical cohort study. We established a study platform using NHIRD and developed comprehensive diagnostic criteria for pulmonary TB and important CNDs such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes mellitus (DM) and other co-morbidities. The investigation on the long-term interaction between the pulmonary TB, DM, and COPD showed promising results. Future works to extend the scope of the present study platform to address the issues such as TB recurrence, efficacy of public health policy, and nosocomial hazard for health care workers will be done.