Fig. 1

Study design and overview of the analysis population. A represents the algorithm used for selecting statutory health insurance (SHI) patients for the analysis. All SHI patients who received the initial diagnosis of lung cancer in 2015 or 2016 and for whom the cancer disease was coded as part of outpatient treatment in at least two different quarters of the observation period (= M2Q criterion) or for whom a confirmed diagnosis was coded once during inpatient treatment, which was regarded as confirmation of the diagnosis, were taken into account. The quarter in which the diagnosis of lung cancer was coded for the first time represents the index quarter. All SHI patients for whom other cancer diagnoses were documented were excluded from the analysis. B gives an overview of the total number of incidental SHI patients, the proportion of excluded SHI patients after application of the algorithm, and the final analysis population