National Pathology Exchange (NPEX) Dataset#
Last modified: 03 Jul 2025
1. Summary#
This dataset is better known as the COVID-19 UK Non-hospital Antigen Testing Results dataset. It covers UK-wide Pillar 2 swab testing for SARS-CoV-2 (drive through test centres, walk in centres, home kits returned by post, care homes, etc.). Data collected include demographic and diagnostic information.
| Dataset Descriptor | Dataset-specific Information |
|---|---|
| Name of Dataset in TRE | NHSE_NPEX |
| Citation (APA) | Data Services, NHS England (NHSE) . (2024). NHS England: National Pathology Exchange . UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC). https://doi.org/10.83126/ukllc-dataset-00052-03 |
| Download Citation | Citeproc JSON BibTeX RIS |
| Series | NHS England |
| Owner | NHS England, Office for National Statistics and Department of Health and Social Care |
| Temporal Coverage in the TRE | 04/2020 - ongoing |
| Geographical Coverage | UK |
| Participant Count | 155295 |
| Number of Variables | 38 |
| Number of Observations | 2807397 |
| Key Link | https://digital.nhs.uk/services/data-access-request-service-dars/dars-products-and-services/data-set-catalogue/covid-19-uk-non-hospital-antigen-testing-results-pillar-2 |
| Keywords | COVID-19, Testing |
| Latest Extract Date | 2024-04-26 |
| Specific Restrictions to Data Use | Research must be related to COVID-19. For examples of research purposes acceptable to NHS England see the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020: https://digital.nhs.uk/about-nhs-digital/corporate-information-and-documents/directions-and-data-provision-notices/secretary-of-state-directions/covid-19-public-health-directions-2020 |
| Build a Data Request | https://explore.ukllc.ac.uk/ |
2. Metrics#
Table 2: Please note, individual cohort counts of less than 10 are suppressed to 0 and are therefore excluded from total participant counts for datasets
3. Version History#
| Version Number | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name in TRE | NHSE_NPEX | NHSE_NPEX | NHSE_NPEX |
| Version Date | 21 Dec 2022 | 13 Apr 2023 | 26 Apr 2024 |
| Number of Variables | 38 | 38 | 38 |
| Number of Rows | 1823830 | 2440208 | 2807397 |
| DOI | 10.83126/ukllc-dataset-00052-01 | 10.83126/ukllc-dataset-00052-02 | 10.83126/ukllc-dataset-00052-03 |
4. Documentation#
We are currently building a documentation storage system, which will host relevant and useful documents related to datasets, groupings, and studies themselves. Relevant documentation for this particular dataset will go here.
5. Useful Syntax#
Below we will include syntax that may be helpful to other researchers in the UK LLC TRE. For longer scripts, we will include a snippet of the code plus a link to Git where you can find the full script