[The prevalence of diabetes in Denmark. Development of a method for a registry-based assessment].

INTRODUCTION: The prevalence of diabetes in Denmark is unknown. The purpose of the present article was to describe the possibilities of developing a method to identify individuals with diagnosed diabetes in Denmark on the basis of existing national registers. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Record linkage of data from The Danish National Hospital Register, The Danish National Health Service Register and The Register of Medicinal Product Statistics. RESULTS: A minimum of 130,000 individuals in Denmark are estimated to have diabetes as on December 31, 1999. DISCUSSION: The possibility of developing a monitoring programme from existing data in registers seems to be present. If a validated monitoring programme is developed, this can not only be used to estimate the prevalence of diabetes, but also for a continuous monitoring of diabetes-related services.