OpenSAFELY papers

  1. Comparative safety and effectiveness of Pfizer BA.4-5 versus Sanofi during the spring 2023 COVID-19 booster vaccination programme in England: a matched cohort study in OpenSAFELY-TPP

    A comparison of the Pfizer BA.4-5 and Sanofi vaccines for protecting against Covid-19 during Spring 2023 booster programme in England

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  2. Changes in opioid prescribing during the COVID-19 pandemic in England: cohort study of 20 million patients in OpenSAFELY-TPP

    This study described changes in prevalent and new opioid prescribing during the COVID-19 pandemic, overall, among people in care homes, and stratified by demographics.

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  3. OpenSAFELY: Measuring BMI in 22 million patients in England

    This study describes the use of four derivations of BMI in OpenSAFELY.

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  4. OpenSAFELY: a platform for analysing electronic health records designed for reproducible research

    This paper describes OpenSAFELY's reproducibility-by-design approach in detail.

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  5. Trends in inequalities in avoidable hospitalisations across the COVID-19 pandemic: a cohort study of 23.5 million people in England

    We determine whether periods of disruption were associated with increased ‘avoidable’ hospital admissions and wider social inequalities in England.

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  6. Consistency, completeness and external validity of ethnicity recording in NHS primary care records: a cohort study in 25 million patients’ records at source using OpenSAFELY

    We describe the completeness and consistency of primary care ethnicity recording in the OpenSAFELY-TPP database, containing linked primary care and hospital records in >25 million patients in England. We also compared the ethnic breakdown in OpenSAFELY-TPP with that of the 2021 UK census.

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  7. Clinical and health inequality risk factors for non-COVID-related sepsis during the global COVID-19 pandemic: a national case-control and cohort study

    We used OpenSAFELY-TPP data to elucidate the association between non-Covid-19 related sepsis and a range of risk factors during the Covid-19 pandemic

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  8. Interpreting Pathology Test Result Values With Comparators (<, >) in Electronic Health Records research: an OpenSAFELY short data report

    A short data report about comparators in pathology test results

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  9. Antibiotics for Common Infections in Primary Care Before, During and after the COVID-19 Pandemic and Extent of Risk-Based Prescribing: Need for Personalised Guidelines

    We assessed the changes in risk-based prescribing behaviours of antibiotics for common infections in primary care during the Covid-19 pandemic

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  10. Group A streptococcal cases and treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic and 2022 outbreak: a retrospective cohort study in England using OpenSAFELY-TPP

    This study described the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Group A streptococcal (GAS) cases and related antibiotic prescriptions.

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  11. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the treatment of common infections in primary care and the change to antibiotic prescribing in England

    We studied how antibiotic precribing for common infections in primary changed duding the Covid-19 pandemic and how this may have affected clincial outcomes

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  12. Effect of the 2022 COVID-19 booster vaccination campaign in 50 year olds in England: regression discontinuity analysis in OpenSAFELY

    This study evaluated the effectiveness of the 2022 autumn COVID-19 booster in 50 year olds

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  13. Challenges in Estimating the Effectiveness of 2 Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine Beyond 6 Months in England

    This paper discusses the challenges in estimating long-term (>6 months) vaccine effectiveness in observational data, primarily due to high uptake of a subsequent third vaccine dose.

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  14. Fit notes associated with COVID-19 in 24 million patients’ primary care records: A cohort study in OpenSAFELY-TPP.

    This study comprehensively quantified the fit note rate in people with COVID-19 in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  15. The impact of COVID-19 on medication reviews in English primary care. An OpenSAFELY-TPP analysis of 20 million adult electronic health records.

    This study investigated whether the rate of medication reviews in primary care were affected during the COVID-19 pandemic, with breakdown by regional, clinical and demographic subgroups.

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  16. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Antipsychotic Prescribing

    We describe the impact of the the COVID-19 pandemic on antipsychotic prescribing in those with autism, dementia, learning disability, serious mental illness or living in a care home.

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  17. Impact of COVID-19 on recorded blood pressure screening and hypertension management in England: An analysis of monthly changes in Quality and Outcomes Framework indicators in OpenSAFELY

    We describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on blood pressure screening and hypertension management

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  18. Eleven key measures for monitoring general practice clinical activity during COVID-19: A retrospective cohort study using 48 million adults’ primary care records in England through OpenSAFELY

    This paper presents an important effort to develop an open-source software framework for monitoring trends and variations in healthcare over time in England. They demonstrate a compelling example of how this system can track key healthcare indicators over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  19. Evaluation of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on hospital admission related to common infections

    We studied the changes in hospital admission rates for common infections during the Covid-19 pandemic, for those having and having not received antibiotic prescriptions in primary care

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  20. Repeated antibiotic exposure and risk of hospitalisation and death following COVID-19 infection (OpenSAFELY): a matched case–control study

    We examined whether prior frequent antibiotic exposure is associated with severe COVID-19 outcomes.

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  21. DMARD monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic

    This study investigated whether disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) safety monitoring was affected during the COVID-19 pandemic, with additional focus on effects within key health inequality groups.

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  22. Changes in medication safety indicators in England throughout the covid-19 pandemic using OpenSAFELY: population based, retrospective cohort study of 57 million patients using federated analytics

    This study aimed to implement complex, PINCER (pharmacist led information technology intervention) prescribing indicators, on a national scale with general practice data to describe the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on safe prescribing.

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  23. Impact of COVID-19 on broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing for common infections in primary care in England: a time-series analyses using OpenSAFELY and effects of predictors including deprivation

    Impact of COVID-19 on broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing for common infections in primary care in England: a time-series analyses using OpenSAFELY and effects of predictors including deprivation

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  24. The impact of COVID-19 on antibiotic prescribing in primary care in England: Evaluation and risk prediction of appropriateness of type and repeat prescribing

    This study predicted risk factors for potentially inappropriate prescribing in primary care and how this changed during the Covid-19 pandemic

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  25. Challenges in Estimating the Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination Using Observational Data

    This paper discusses the challenges in estimating vaccine effectiveness using observational data, and describes two approaches that help to overcome these challenges.

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  26. Changes in COVID-19-related mortality across key demographic and clinical subgroups in England from 2020 to 2022: a retrospective cohort study using the OpenSAFELY platform

    This study aimed to describe the burden of COVID-19-related mortality in population subgroups and how this has changed over successive waves of the pandemic, and report trends in absolute and relative COVID-19-related mortality risks across clinical and demographic population subgroups from 2020 to 2022.

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  27. Comparative effectiveness of BNT162b2 versus mRNA-1273 covid-19 vaccine boosting in England: matched cohort study in OpenSAFELY-TPP

    A comparison of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for protecting against Covid-19 during the first booster programme in England

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  28. First dose COVID-19 vaccine coverage amongst adolescents and children in England: an analysis of 3.21 million patients' primary care records in situ using OpenSAFELY

    Describing trends and variation in vaccine coverage in different clinical and demographic groups amongst adolescents and children in England

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  29. OpenSAFELY NHS Service Restoration Observatory 1: primary care clinical activity in England during the first wave of COVID-19

    Working on behalf of NHS England, this study used the OpenSAFELY platform to describe the volume and variation of coded clinical activity in general practice between January 2019 and September 2020, taking respiratory disease and laboratory procedures as examples.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  30. Trends and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 vaccine recipients

    Vaccine coverage and time trends across a range of demographic and fine-grained clinical subgroups in eight Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) priority cohorts.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  31. Impact of national guidance on switching anticoagulant therapy during COVID-19 pandemic

    This paper describes which people were switched from warfarin to DOACs during the COVID-19 pandemic following an update in national guidance

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  32. Clinical coding of long COVID in English primary care

    Working on behalf of NHS England, this paper used the OpenSAFELY platform to measure the proportion of people with a recorded code for long COVID, overall and by demographic factors, electronic health record software system, and week.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  33. Association between warfarin and COVID-19-related outcomes compared with direct oral anticoagulants

    This paper conducted a population-based cohort study investigating the association between warfarin and COVID-19 outcomes compared with direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs).

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  34. Severity of Severe Acute Respiratory System Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Alpha Variant (B.1.1.7) in England

    This paper aims to describe the severity of the alpha variant in terms of the pathway of disease from testing positive to hospital admission and death.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  35. Risks of covid-19 hospital admission and death for people with learning disability

    Working on behalf of NHS England, this paper used the OpenSAFELY platform to assess the association between learning disability and risk of hospitalisation and mortality from COVID-19 in England among adults and children.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  36. Factors associated with deaths due to COVID-19 versus other causes

    We aimed to investigate how specific factors are differentially associated with COVID-19 mortality as compared to mortality from causes other than COVID-19.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  37. Ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19-related hospitalisation, intensive care unit admission, and death in 17 million adults in England

    Working on behalf of NHS England, this paper used the OpenSAFELY platform to quantify ethnic differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 outcomes during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in England.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  38. Identifying Care Home Residents in Electronic Health Records

    This short data report describes the partial overlap between three methods for identifying care home residents in EHR, and provides detailed instructions for how to implement these in OpenSAFELY-TPP to support research into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on care home residents.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  39. Association between living with children and outcomes from covid-19

    Working on behalf of NHS England, this paper used the OpenSAFELY platform to investigate whether risk of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) differed between adults living with and without children during the first two waves of the UK pandemic.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  40. Case fatality risk of the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern B.1.1.7

    Working on behalf of NHS England, this paper uses the OpenSAFELY platform to estimate the risk of death following confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 infection in England, comparing infection with VOC to non-VOC, after accounting for demographic factors and comorbidities

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  41. Changes in the rate of cardiometabolic and pulmonary events during the COVID-19 pandemic

    Working on behalf of NHS England, this study used the OpenSAFELY platform to describe the overall rate of various key clinical events over time, and their relationship with COVID-19.

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  42. Short report: Ethnicity and COVID-19 death in the early part of the COVID-19 second wave in England

    This short data report investigates whether there were ethic inequalities in COVID-19 death in the second wave in England.

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  43. Use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and risk of death from COVID-19

    Working on behalf of NHS England, this paper used the OpenSAFELY platform to assess the association between routinely prescribed non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and deaths from COVID-19.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  44. HIV infection and COVID-19 death

    Working on behalf of NHS England, this paper used the OpenSAFELY platform to investigate the association between HIV infection and COVID-19 mortality.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  45. Effect of pre-exposure use of hydroxychloroquine on COVID-19 mortality

    Working on behalf of NHS England, this paper used the OpenSAFELY platform to investigate the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine for prevention, as opposed to treatment, of COVID-19 mortality. We found no evidence of benefit or harm after adjusting for important differences between people with the same health conditions prescribed hydroxychloroquine or not.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  46. Comparison of different risk prediction modelling approaches for COVID-19 related death using the OpenSAFELY platform

    This protocol reports details of a planned study to explore the extent to which incorporating time-varying measures of infection burden over time improves the quality of risk prediction models for COVID-19 death in a large population of adult patients in England.

    Status
    Preprint

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  47. Risk of COVID-19-related death among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma prescribed inhaled corticosteroids

    Working on behalf of NHS England, this paper used the OpenSAFELY platform to investigate the association between ICS and COVID-19-related death among people with COPD or asthma using linked electronic health records (EHRs) in England, UK.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  48. Factors associated with COVID-19-related death using OpenSAFELY

    Working on behalf of NHS England, this paper used the OpenSAFELY platform to quantify a range of clinical risk factors for COVID-19-related death in the largest cohort study conducted by any country to date.

    Status
    Published

    Categories

    • OpenSAFELY

  49. Better use of data and digital offer rapid opportunities to address covid-19

    COVID-19 digital and data BMJ Blog

    Categories

    • Open Working
    • OpenPathology
    • OpenSAFELY
    • Policy Insights