Association of arbitrary prescribing behavior to costly drug expenditures: a pharmacoeconomic study in primary care.

Autor: Kirmizi Sonmez NI; Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Bahcesehir University, Istanbul 34353, Turkey., Aydin V; Department of Medical Pharmacology, International School of Medicine, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul 34815, Turkey., Atac O; Department of Public Health, International School of Medicine, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul 34815, Turkey.; Department of Health Management and Policy, College of Public Health, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, United States., Akici A; Department of Medical Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Marmara University, Istanbul 34854, Turkey.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Postgraduate medical journal [Postgrad Med J] 2023 Dec 21; Vol. 100 (1179), pp. 36-41.
DOI: 10.1093/postmj/qgad092
Abstrakt: Background: We aimed to examine the cost-related prescribing performance of primary care physicians who had a higher versus lower tendency of arbitrary prescribing.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we evaluated the prescriptions of primary care physicians in Istanbul, collected with 3:1 systematic sampling. We determined higher versus lower arbitrary prescribing by the physician's degree of writing the solo diagnosis of "Z00- General examination without diagnosis/complaint": those for whom such prescriptions constituted >5% were classified as Group A and those with them at <0.5% as Group B. We compared these two groups by the total and disease-specific drug costs per prescription they produced for 10 frequently encountered indications.
Results: The median cost of disease-specific medication for all diagnoses in Group A and Group B, except anemia, was equal. In upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), hypertension, anemia, diabetes, and conjunctivitis, the mean prescription costs of Group A were significantly higher than those of Group B (P < .001, P < .001, P = .009, P = .007, and P < .001, respectively), whereas disease-specific drug costs per prescription were similar (P > .05 in all diagnoses). In myalgia, Group A had lower cost per prescription (P < .001) and higher analgesic costs per prescription (P < .001) compared to those in Group B. We found significantly higher disease-specific drug cost share in Group B for URTIs (antibiotic), gastroesophageal reflux disease (gastric acid-suppressant), hypertension (antihypertensive), anemia (iron preparations), diabetes (antidiabetic), depression (antidepressant), and conjunctivitis (corticosteroid) than those in Group A (P < .001 for each).
Conclusions: Our study showed that physicians who had a higher tendency of prescribing for no clear indication are also more likely to produce costly prescriptions.
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Databáze: MEDLINE