PDC was calculated as the proportion of days on which a patient had available prescriptions for ULT in each interval, which was defined as the period from the latest of registration date or 1 January to the earliest of transfer-out, death date or 31 December of the calendar year specified.
For these calculations we identified a cohort of patients who entered the study on the latest of their registration date and 1 January 2002 and who had not been prescribed statins, or had the outcome of interest by that date.
Prevalent cases of gout were defined as participants who had gout on 1 July of each calendar year, whereas incident cases of gout were those who had no gout prior to the latest of current registration date plus 365 days or 1 January of each calendar year but developed gout during the year.
For incidence of gout, we constructed at-risk cohorts for each calendar year which comprised all individuals registered with up-to-standard practices during the year specified who had no history of gout diagnosis before the latest of current registration date plus 365 days or 1 January of the calendar year specified.
Events were discarded if they occurred before the start date (the latest of patient's registration date or the date that the practice's records were considered up-to-standard by the GPRD) or after the end date (the first of patient leaving the practice or the last date that records were received from the practice).
Eligible follow-up time for the remaining patients started from the latest date of their current registration date, their practice's "up-to-standard" date, or 1 January of the year on which they reached the age of 55 years.
For each individual, the person-years of follow-up were calculated as running from the latest of: 18th birthday, practice registration date or 1 January 2004 to the earliest of: date of first statin prescription, date of death, date of first CVD event, date of transfer from practice or 31 December 2012.
The earliest permissible registration date from the selected units was 1 January 2003 and the latest 31 December 2005.
Patients entered the study at whichever was the latest of the following timepoints: the diabetes diagnosis date, 65th birthday, 1 year after practice registration date, the date the practice reached CPRD quality control standards or 1 April 1997.
Priority registration date is February 8 , 2019
Registration date: 17 November 2006.
