Issue # and location

Issue summary

How should drug exposure records with negative days supply be handled in the CDM?

Convention type

Table

CDM table

drug_exposure

CDM field

days_supply

Provenance of data

General

The ratified convention

The CDM documentation states: Negative values are not allowed. If the source has negative days supply the record should be dropped as it is unknown if the patient actually took the drug.

Several actions are possible: 1) record is not trustworthy and we remove the record entirely. 2) we trust the record and leave days_supply empty or 3) record needs to be combined with other record (e.g. reversal of prescription). High values (>365 days) should be investigated. If considered an error in the source data (e.g. typo), the value needs to be excluded to prevent creation of unrealistic long eras.

Date of ratification/published

July 5, 2023

Downstream implications

No

Yes - plausibleValueLow (page under construction)

NA

Tags: negative