Menopausal status was defined as the reported state at half a year before the reference date.
Passive surveillance is defined as the reporting of clinical suspect cases to the health authorities [ 30].
Exposure to antidepressants was the primary determinant investigated and was defined as the reporting of antidepressants as a suspected, interacting or concomitant drug for an ADR.
Exposure to antipsychotics and benzodiazepines was defined as the reporting of respectively antipsychotics and benzodiazepines as a suspected, interacting or concomitant drug for an ADR.
Physical activity was defined as the reporting of exercise habits according to four physical activity categories (sedentary, moderate, regular and athletic) [ 20].
The use of antidiabetic medication and of hyper- or hypoglycaemia-inducing comedication was defined as the reporting of one of these drugs as a suspected, interacting or concomitant drug for an ADR.
Menopausal status was defined as the reported state half a year before the reference date, which was the date of diagnosis for cases and the date of completion of the questionnaire for controls.
Prevalent asthma was defined as the reported use of controller medications for asthma (inhaled corticosteroids, leukotriene inhibitors, cromolyn sodium, or long-acting beta agonists) in the previous year or lifetime asthma with any wheeze in the previous year.
Use of a structured RQ is defined as the reporting of complete PICO Abbreviations: OQS, Overall quality score; Q1, quartile 1; quartiletile 3; IRR, incidence rate ratio; 95% CI, 95% confidence interval; GEE, generalized estimating equations; RCTs, randomized controlled trials.
A positive Gram stain result was defined as the report of gram-positive diplococci (suggestive of S. pneumoniae), gram-negative diplococci (suggestive of N. meningitidis), or gram-negative pleomorphic coccobacilli (suggestive of H. influenzae).
