Medication (ATC)

The Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) Classification System is a drug classification system that classifies the active ingredients of drugs according to the organ or system on which they act and their therapeutic, pharmacological and chemical properties. It is controlled by the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Drug Statistics Methodology (WHOCC), and was first published in 1976. The Dutch version of this system can be found here.

At baseline, the medication use (section: medical treatment) of adult participants were assessed as followed:

• By questionnaire (see Medication), n=xxx (18-64 years old), until July 2012
• By medication wrapper brought to 1A Visit 1 or 1A Visit 2, n=xxx (65+ years old, and 18-64 years old from July 2012 onwards)

Research assistants coded the results using ATC-coding software. These codes (section: secondary & linked variables) are released for research, but please note that not all ATC-coding was verified (i.e. double checked whether the raw data matched the code). This is the case for ca. 5,000 participants who did report to use medication at baseline.