NHIS NSC - sporedata/researchdesigneR GitHub Wiki

General description

The NHIS-NSC database is a representative population-based cohort data established by the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) in South Korea. It provides benefits for prevention, diagnosis, disease and injury treatment, rehabilitation, births, deaths, and health promotion. It comprises four databases: insurance eligibility database, medical treatment database, medical care institution database, and general health examination database. All four databases are further classified according to type of medicine: ‘medical’ and ‘dental & Chinese medicine’ tables.

NHIS-NSC data comes from numerous medical facilities and healthcare organizations and thus presents a risk of lack of consistency in its collection. To mitigate this human error, the OMPO-CDM is used for data collection. The OMOP-CDM (Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model) is a data standard designed to standardize the content and structure of observational data. It enables efficient analyses through the standard capture (same way across all participating institutions) of information for reliable evidence. In essence, OMOP-CDM ensures consistency in data collection across multiple institutions.

Variable categories

  • Variables include information on participant’s identity, socioeconomic variables (gender, level of income, residential area, type of health insurance, type and grade of disability registered), birth, and death.
  • Variables for the cause of death and residential area details are provided upon request.
  • In addition, participants’ electronic medical treatment bills, bill details, details of diseases, and details of prescriptions are also included. Information regarding the type of institution, location, establishment, facilities, number of beds, and physicians are recorded.

Limitations

  • Information on rare diseases is unavailable.
  • Disease codes listed may not represent participants’ true disease status because the code was created to claim health insurance service to participants, an inherent limitation of insurance databases.
  • Non-insurance benefits data (cosmetic surgeries and information for over-the-counter drugs) may be absent.

Related publications

SporeData data dictionaries