Is it the right query on what I am looking for in openFDA?

Question

I have performed a query. I was planning to get the adverse report based on medicine name and age. So I did this

https://api.fda.gov/drug/event.json?search=patient.drug.openfda.brand_name:advil+AND+patient.patientonsetage:64&limit=5

I just want to know that whether I have written the right query or not. Please help me in this case. I have gone through the JSON data. I was convinced that the data was right. But I want to make sure from openFDA people or the others who are using openFDA API like me.

Answer 1

Yes, that API query looks correct but note the following:

• You can get a count of the adverse event reactions through the API by adding &count=.. to the end of your URL like this: https://api.fda.gov/drug/event.json?search=patient.drug.openfda.brand_name:advil+AND+patient.patientonsetage:64&count=patient.reaction.reactionmeddrapt.exact
• You should be aware that 45% (1,734,133 of the 3,814,280) adverse events on openFDA as of right now do not have any age set. You can see this at https://api.fda.gov/drug/event.json?search=missing:patient.patientonsetage for openFDA in general and at https://api.fda.gov/drug/event.json?search=missing:patient.patientonsetage%20AND%20patient.drug.openfda.brand_name:advil for your advil query
• Age is not always (but usually is) denoted in years by openFDA