BackgroundElectronic linkage of UK cohorts to routinely collected National Health Service (NHS) records provides virtually complete follow-up for cause-specific hospital admissions and deaths. The reliability of dementia diagnoses recorded in NHS hospital data is not well documented.MethodsFor a sample of Million Women Study participants in England we compared dementia recorded in routinely collected NHS hospital data (Hospital Episode Statistics: HES) with dementia recorded in two separate sources of primary care information: a primary care database [Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), n = 340] and a survey of study participants’ General Practitioners (GPs, n = 244).ResultsDementia recorded in HES fully agreed both with CPRD and with GP survey data for 85% of women; it did not agree for 1 and 4%, respectively. Agreement was uncertain for the remaining 14 and 11%, respectively; and among those classified as having uncertain agreement in CPRD, non-specific terms compatible with dementia, such as ‘memory loss’, were recorded in the CPRD database for 79% of the women. Agreement was significantly better (p < 0.05 for all comparisons) for women with HES diagnoses for Alzheimer’s disease (95 and 94% agreement with any dementia for CPRD and GP survey, respectively) and for vascular dementia (88 and 88%, respectively) than for women with a record only of dementia not otherwise specified (70 and 72%, respectively). Dementia in the same woman was first mentioned an average 1.6 (SD 2.6) years earlier in primary care (CPRD) than in hospital (HES) data. Age-specific rates for dementia based on the hospital admission data were lower than the rates based on the primary care data, but were similar if the delay in recording in HES was taken into account.ConclusionsDementia recorded in routinely collected NHS hospital admission data for women in England agrees well with primary care records of dementia assessed separately from two different sources, and is sufficiently reliable for epidemiological research.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12982-016-0053-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Female sex hormones are thought to affect women's risk of developing central nervous system (CNS) tumors. Some have reported an increased risk in users of menopausal hormone therapy (HT) but evidence is limited. In the UK General Practice Research Database we compared prospectively collected information on HT prescriptions in women aged 50-79 years with CNS tumors diagnosed in 1987-2011 with that in matched controls (four per case). Relative risks (RRs) in relation to prescribed HT were calculated overall and by CNS tumor subtype. Statistical tests are two-sided. For all CNS tumors (n 5 3,500), glioma (n 5 689), meningioma (n 5 1,197), acoustic neuroma (n 5 439), and pituitary tumors (n 5 273) adjusted RRs for women prescribed HT versus not were, respectively, 1.21 (95% confidence intervals (CI) 5 1.10-1.32, p < 0.0001), 1.14 (0.93-1.40, p 5 0.2), 1.30 (1.11-1.51, p 5 0.001), 1.37 (1.06-1.75, p 5 0.01), and 1.35 (0.99-1.85, p 5 0.06). There was no significant difference in risk by tumor subtype (p heterogeneity 5 0.6). A meta-analysis was conducted, combining our results with those from other published studies with prospectively collected exposure information. The meta-analyses yielded significantly increased risks for all CNS tumors, glioma and meningioma in users of estrogen-only [1.35 (1.22-1.49), 1.23 (1.06-1.42) and 1.31 (1.20-1.43), respectively] but not estrogen-progestin HT [1.09 (0.99-1.19), 0.92 (0.78-1.08) and 1.05 (0.95-1.16), respectively]; these differences were statistically significant (p < 0.005 for each tumor type). There was no significant difference between glioma and meningioma risk in users of estrogen-only HT. The totality of the available evidence suggests an increased risk of all CNS tumors (and of glioma and meningioma separately) in users of estrogen-only HT. Absolute excess risk (2 per 10,000 users over 5 years) is small.Use of some types of hormone therapy (HT) for the menopause has been associated with an increased risk of cancers of the breast, ovary, and endometrium and decreased risk of cancers of the gastrointestinal tract.1,2 Some, but not all, have reported an increase in the risk of certain central nervous system (CNS) tumors in HT users. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Evidence is limited by the lack of systematic reporting of findings for all CNS tumors combined, as well as by different tumor subtypes and by specific HT preparations. The findings for all CNS tumors combined are of public health relevance. Reliable assessment of the association between HT use and CNS tumors requires careful control of potential sources of appreciable bias, such as from selective participation or recall of HT use within studies. Differential reporting of HT use in studies where information was recorded retrospectively, i.e., after women had been diagnosed with CNS tumors, is an important source of such bias.To study the association between use of different types of HT and the risk of CNS tumors we used prospectively recorded prescribing information for HT in a case-control study nested ...

Background:Hormonal factors may influence risk for upper gastrointestinal cancers in women. We examined risk of oesophageal and gastric cancers in relation to reproductive factors in a large UK cohort, the Million Women Study.Methods:Among 1 319 409 women aged on average 56 years at recruitment, 1186 incident cancers of the oesophagus and 1194 of the stomach were registered during 11.9 million person-years' observation. Adjusted relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models.Results:Risks of both oesophageal and gastric cancer were significantly higher in postmenopausal than in pre- or peri-menopausal women (RRs 1.46, 1.07–2.00 and 1.59, 1.15–2.20, respectively; P⩽0.01 for both); and, among postmenopausal women, risk was higher the younger women were at menopause (RR, 95% CI per 5 years younger at menopause 1.18, 1.05–1.34 for oesophageal cancer and 1.18, 1.04–1.34 for stomach cancer, Ptrend=0.01 for both). For factors relating to childbearing, including women's age at first birth, their number of children, and breastfeeding history, the only significant association was a higher risk of oesophageal cancer in nulliparous, compared with parous, women (RR 1.31, 1.11–1.55; P=0.002). When risks for squamous cell and adenocarcinomas of the oesophagus were compared, most did not differ significantly, but statistical power was limited.Conclusion:Both oesophageal and gastric cancer risks appeared to be related to menopausal status and age at menopause, but there was little consistent evidence for associations with factors related to childbearing.

Objective:To compare associations of body mass index (BMI) with ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke risk, and to review the worldwide evidence.Methods:We recruited 1.3 million previously stroke-free UK women between 1996 and 2001 (mean age 57 years [SD 5]) and followed them by record linkage for hospital admissions and deaths. We used Cox regression to estimate adjusted relative risks for ischemic and hemorrhagic (intracerebral or subarachnoid hemorrhage) stroke in relation to BMI. We conducted a meta-analysis of published findings from prospective studies on these associations.Results:During an average follow-up of 11.7 years, there were 20,549 first strokes, of which 9,993 were specified as ischemic and 5,852 as hemorrhagic. Increased BMI was associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke (relative risk 1.21 per 5 kg/m2 BMI, 95% confidence interval 1.18–1.23, p < 0.0001) but a decreased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (relative risk 0.89 per 5 kg/m2 BMI, 0.86–0.92, p < 0.0001). The BMI-associated trends for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke were significantly different (heterogeneity: p < 0.0001) but were not significantly different for intracerebral hemorrhage (n = 2,790) and subarachnoid hemorrhage (n = 3,062) (heterogeneity: p = 0.5). Published data from prospective studies showed consistently greater BMI-associated relative risks for ischemic than hemorrhagic stroke with most evidence (prior to this study) coming from Asian populations.Conclusions:In UK women, higher BMI is associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke but decreased risk of hemorrhagic stroke. The totality of the available published evidence suggests that BMI-associated risks are greater for ischemic than for hemorrhagic stroke.