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An evaluation of prescribing trends and patterns of claims within the Preferred Drugs Initiative in Ireland (2011-2016): an interrupted time-series study.

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Version 2 2021-10-13, 09:15
Version 1 2019-11-22, 15:57
journal contribution
posted on 2019-11-22, 15:57 authored by Ronald McDowell, Kathleen Bennett, Frank Moriarty, Sarah Clarke, Michael Barry, Tom Fahey

OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of the Preferred Drugs Initiative (PDI), an Irish health policy aimed at enhancing evidence-based cost-effective prescribing, on prescribing trends and the cost of prescription medicines across seven medication classes.

DESIGN: Retrospective repeated cross-sectional study spanning the years 2011

SETTING: Health Service Executive Primary Care Reimbursement Service pharmacy claims data for General Medical Services (GMS) patients, approximately 40% of the Irish population.

PARTICIPANTS: Adults aged ≥18 years between 2011 and 2016 are eligible for the GMS scheme.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES: The percentage of PDI medications within each drug class per calendar quarter. Linear regression was used to model prescribing of the preferred drug within each medication group and to assess the impact of PDI guidelines and other relevant changes in prescribing practice. Savings in drug expenditure were estimated.

RESULTS: Between 2011 and 2016, around a quarter (23.59%) of all medications were for single-agent drugs licensed in the seven drug classes. There was a small increase in the percentage of PDI drugs, increasing from 4.64% of all medications in 2011 to 4.76% in 2016 (P

CONCLUSION: There has been a small increase in prescribing of PDI drugs in response to prescribing guidelines, with inconsistent changes observed across therapeutic classes. These findings are relevant where health services are seeking to develop more active prescribing interventions aimed at changing prescribing practice.

Funding

Health Research Board (HRB) of Ireland under the HRB Centre for Primary Care Phase 2 Funding award, grant HRC/2014/1. HRB under grant RL-15-1579.

History

Comments

The original article is available at bmjopen.bmj.com

Published Citation

McDowell R, Bennett K, Moriarty F, Clarke S, Barry M, Fahey T. An evaluation of prescribing trends and patterns of claims within the Preferred Drugs Initiative in Ireland (2011-2016): an interrupted time-series study. BMJ Open. 2018;8(4):e019315.

Publication Date

2018-04-20

Publisher

BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

PubMed ID

29678966