Clinical and continuity of care variables and data sources
| Variable | Data source |
| Patient characteristics | |
| Age | RPDB |
| Sex | |
| Income quintile | Statistics Canada Census Postal Code Conversion File |
| Rural residence | |
| Rostering: patient enrolled in a primary care organisation, team or with a primary care physician | CAPE |
| Palliative patient: look-back window of 6 months | OHIP, CIHI-DAD, CIHI-NACRS, RAI-CA, RAI-HC, HCD, CCRS |
| Characteristics of index hospitalisation | |
| Type of hospital: teaching, community, small | Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care |
| Length of index hospitalisation | CIHI-DAD |
| Specialty of the physician responsible for index OAC prescription: general/family practitioner; cardiology; haematology; internal medicine; orthopaedic surgery; oncology; other surgery; other | IPDB |
| Type of OAC dispensed at index prescription date: warfarin, apixaban, dabigatran, rivaroxaban | ODB |
| Type of discharge: home; long-term or continuing care facility; other | CIHI-DAD |
| Type of OAC user | |
| Incident: patients who were not dispensed an OAC in the year prior to cohort entry | ODB |
| Prevalent | |
| Non-switchers: patients who were dispensed the same OAC in the year prior to cohort entry | |
| Switchers: patients who were dispensed a different OAC in the year prior to cohort entry | |
| Comorbidities | |
| Components of CHA2DS2-VASc (not including those mentioned above) – looking at the presence of these medical conditions in the 3 years prior to cohort entry | |
| Congestive heart failure | CHF |
| Hypertension | HYPER |
| Diabetes mellitus | ODD |
| Prior stroke/transient ischaemic stroke | CIHI-DAD |
| Peripheral vascular disease | |
| Components of HAS-BLED (not including those mentioned above) – looking at the presence of these medical conditions in the 3 years prior to cohort entry | |
| Abnormal renal/liver function | CIHI-DAD, OHIP |
| Prior bleeding | CIHI-DAD |
| Drugs/alcohol concomitantly | CIHI-DAD, ODB |
| Charlson comorbidity score | CIHI-DAD |
| Other comorbidities | |
| Dementia | DEMENTIA |
| Delirium | CIHI-DAD, OMHRS |
| Diagnosis of obesity in the 3 years prior to cohort entry | CIHI-DAD, OHIP |
| Diagnosis of underweight in the 3 years prior to cohort entry | |
| Antiphospholipid syndrome in the 3 years prior to cohort entry | CIHI-DAD |
| Active cancer | OCR, OHIP |
| Thromboembolic event | CIHI-DAD, CIHI-NACRS |
| Substance abuse | CIHI-DAD, OMHRS, OHIP |
| Alcoholic abuse | |
| Number of hospitalisations in the past year | CIHI-DAD |
| Recent anticoagulant use (120 days) | ODB |
| Indications | |
| Atrial fibrillation | CIHI-DAD, CIHI-NACRS, OHIP |
| Joint replacement | CIHI-DAD |
| Major surgery | CIHI-DAD |
| Deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism | CIHI-DAD, CIHI-NACRS |
| Mechanical heart valve | CIHI-DAD |
| Potential drug interactions – dispensed in the past 120 days prior to cohort entry, unless otherwise specified | |
| Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs* | ODB |
| Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors | |
| Amiodarone | |
| Aspirin* | |
| Antiplatelets | |
| Antibiotics, dispensed in the past 30 days prior to cohort entry | |
| Number of drugs dispensed that potentially interact with OACs | |
| Continuity of care – healthcare contact within 7 days of discharge from index hospitalisation | |
| Follow-up with primary care physician, nurse practitioner, medical specialist or home care services | OHIP, HCD |
| Follow-up with familiar hospital physician | OHIP |
| Follow-up with familiar community physician | OHIP |
*Over-the-counter use of drug is not captured.
CAPE, Client Agency Program Enrollment Database; CCRS, Ontario Continuing Care Reporting System; CHA2DS2-VASc, congestive heart failure, hypertension, age ≥75 years, diabetes, previous stroke, vascular disease, age 65–74 years, sex category; CHF, Ontario Congestive Heart Failure Database; CIHI-DAD, Canadian Institute for Health Information–Discharge Abstract Database; CIHI-NACRS, Canadian Institute for Health Information–National Ambulatory Care Reporting System; DEMENTIA, Ontario Dementia Database; HAS-BLED, hypertension, abnormal renal/liver function, stroke, bleeding history or predisposition, labile international normalised ratio (excluded), elderly (>65 years), drugs/alcohol concomitantly; HCD, Ontario Home Care Database; HYPER, Ontario Hypertension Dataset; IPDB, ICES Physician Database; OCR, Ontario Cancer Registry; ODB, Ontario Drug Benefit Programme Database; ODD, Ontario Diabetes Database; OHIP, Ontario Health Insurance Plan Claims History Database; OMHRS, Ontario Mental Health Reporting System Database; RAI-CA, Resident Assessment Instrument—Contact Assessment; RAI-HC, Resident Assessment Instrument—Home Care; RPDB, Ontario Health Insurance Plan Registered Persons Database.