Risk of cardiovascular events after an exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: results from the EXACOS-CV cohort study using the PHARMO Data Network in the Netherlands.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateThe study was approved by the Compliance Committee of Stichting Informatievoorziening voor Zorg en ONderzoek (STIZON, reference number CC2021-33). The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical principles outlined in the declaration of Helsinki. All data sources used were linked through probabilistic linkage using demographic variables of the patients by STIZON (ISO27001/NEN7510 certified TTP). All identifying information was deleted after linkage of the various databases. This approach is approved by the Dutch Data Protection Authority ('College Bescherming Persoonsgegevens'). STIZON acts as processor for the care givers (who remain controller of the data) and STIZON has a General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) proof processing agreement in place with all care givers. Caregivers have to inform their patients, who can opt out at any time. The PHARMO Institute only works with anonymised data without access to personal identifying information. Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsKS, BB, LL, FPB and RH are employees of the PHARMO Institute for Drug Outcomes Research. This independent research institute performs financially supported studies for government and related healthcare authorities and several pharmaceutical companies. ML, FH, DV, and CB are employees of IQVIA, a contract research organization that performs financially supported studies for pharmaceutical companies. EG has been a consultant to AstraZeneca on this project and has previously chaired a department at the Leibniz Institute that occasionally conducted studies for pharmaceutical companies, including Bayer, Nycomed, Celgene, Glaxo-Smith-Kline, Mundipharma, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Sanofi Pasteur MSD and STADA. CN, LB and KR are employees of AstraZeneca and own shares in AstraZeneca. SS has received grants or contracts from AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche and Boehringer Ingelheim, outside the submitted work; consulting fees from Chiesi and GlaxoSmithKline, outside the submitted work; honoraria received from AstraZeneca and Chiesi for lectures outside the submitted work; support for attending meetings from Chiesi, outside the submitted work; honoraria for advisory board for AstraZeneca, Chiesi and Boehringer Ingelheim, outside the submitted work. Competing interests KS, BB, LL, FPB and RH are employees of the PHARMO Institute for Drug Outcomes Research. This independent research institute performs financially supported studies for government and related healthcare authorities and several pharmaceutical companies. ML, FH, DV, and CB are employees of IQVIA, a contract research organization that performs financially supported studies for pharmaceutical companies. EG has been a consultant to AstraZeneca on this project and has previously chaired a department at the Leibniz Institute that occasionally conducted studies for pharmaceutical companies, including Bayer, Nycomed, Celgene, Glaxo-Smith-Kline, Mundipharma, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Sanofi Pasteur MSD and STADA. CN, LB and KR are employees of AstraZeneca and own shares in AstraZeneca. SS has received grants or contracts from AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche and Boehringer Ingelheim, outside the submitted work; consulting fees from Chiesi and GlaxoSmithKline, outside the submitted work; honoraria received from AstraZeneca and Chiesi for lectures outside the submitted work; support for attending meetings from Chiesi, outside the submitted work; honoraria for advisory board for AstraZeneca, Chiesi and Boehringer Ingelheim, outside the submitted work."

"Funding This study was funded by AstraZeneca."