[Estimate of the prevalence of Parkinson's disease by using electronic health archives]. / Stima della prevalenza della malattia di Parkinson con l'utilizzo di archivi sanitari elettronici correnti.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of Parkinson's disease using electronic health archives and to obtain a knowledge base for its governance. MATERIALS: Drug prescriptions, tax-exemptions and hospital discharge records relating to assisted of Health Services Agency "Triestina" in the year 2011. RESULTS: We identified 909 cases (crude prevalence rate: 380/100.000). The percentage contribution of drug prescriptions, tax-exemptions and hospital discharge records is: 81.5%, 36.1% and 35.2%. CONCLUSIONS: The use of drug prescriptions to detect patients with Parkinson's disease can be effectively supplemented by data of hospital discharges and tax-exemptions, but they still show an underestimation of 17%.