Cohorts and sources of data

Quebec Assisted reproductive technology (ART) study
Assisted reproductive technology (ART) refers to methods used to achieve pregnancy by artificial or partially artificial means including ovulation stimulation, artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization or embryo transfer. The Quebec ART study is an initiative of Dr. Anick Bérard and will be put in place during 2009-2010. The cohort used for this study will be built by the linkage of three administrative databases of the province of Quebec: the Régie de l'Assurance Maladie du Québec (RAMQ), the MedEcho database, and the Fichier des événements démographiques du Québec, administered by the Institut de la Statistique du Québec (ISQ). Data extracted from these databases will be supplemented with data obtained from a self-administered questionnaire.

The RAMQ database contains information on medical services (diagnoses and procedures) received by all Quebec residents. Although RAMQ covers all residents for the cost of physician visits, hospitalisations, and procedures, it only covers a portion of them for the cost of medications. The RAMQ prescription claims database (RAMQ-Rx) covers individuals 65 years and older, recipients of social assistance (welfare recipients), and workers and their families (adherents) who do not have access to a private drug insurance program, accounting for approximately 43% of the overall Quebec population and 36% of women between 15-45 years of age. MedEcho is a provincial database which records acute care hospitalisation data, including emergency visits, for all Quebec residents; it also records gestational age for deliveries. Le fichier des événements démographiques du Québec provides demographic information on the mother, father and baby as well as birth weight and gestational age for live births and stillbirths. Data extracted from these databases will be supplemented with data obtained from a self-administered questionnaire in order to obtain information on ART procedures, data on prescribing/treating physicians and information on important confounders not present in the administrative databases.

This research was funded by the Quebec Ministry of Health (MSSS) and was approved by the CHU Sainte-Justine's ethics committee. The authorization for access to information needed for the creation of the cohort for Quebec ART study was approved by the Commission d'accès à l'information du Québec (CAI).


Untimely, the Quebec ART study will give the opportunity to evaluate the risk of multiplicity associated with the different ART, characterise their utilization, quantify the mean number of newborns per pregnancy according to the different ART, and identify and quantify predictors of ART use.