Table 1 Summary of article characteristics (n = 57)

Year of publication

  ≥ 2015

61.4

[9, 12, 27, 32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63]

  < 2015

38.6

[10, 64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84]

Geographical location of data source

 US

77.2

[9, 10, 27, 33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40, 42,43,44,45,46,47,48, 50,51,52,53,54,55, 57, 59,60,61, 66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73, 75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83]

 Australia

5.3

[64, 65, 74]

 UK

3.5

[49, 81]

 Canada

3.5

[41, 56]

 Other

10.5

[12, 32, 46, 58, 62, 84]

Clinical population

 Yes

64.9

[27, 33, 35, 36, 38, 39, 41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48, 52, 53, 55,56,57,58, 60,61,62,63, 66,67,68, 70, 72,73,74, 76,77,78, 82, 83]

 No

35.1

[10, 12, 32, 34, 37, 40, 49,50,51, 54, 59, 64, 65, 69, 71, 75, 79,80,81, 84]

Data from multiple jurisdictions

 Yes

14.0

[43, 44, 48, 50, 68, 70, 72, 73]

 No

86.0

[9, 10, 12, 27, 32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42, 45,46,47, 49, 51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67, 71, 74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84]

Journal discipline

 Medical informatics/Electronic data

42.1

[27, 34, 41, 45, 47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55, 57, 60, 66, 67, 73, 74, 76, 78,79,80, 83]

 Medicine/Clinical

29.8

[35, 36, 38,39,40, 43, 44, 46, 56, 58, 59, 64, 65, 70, 71, 75, 77]

 Public health and epidemiology

10.5

[9, 12, 32, 37, 42, 81]

 Health services

8.8

[62, 63, 68, 72, 82]

 Substance-related disorders

5.3

[10, 61, 69]

 Biomedical

3.5

[33, 84]