From prescriptions to drug use periods - things to notice

BMC Research Notes

Jari Tiihonen³  Riitta Ahonen²  Sirpa Hartikainen²  Anna-Maija Tolppanen¹  Marjaana Koponen²  Heidi Taipale²  Antti Tanskanen³ 

[1] Research Centre for Comparative Effectiveness and Patient Safety (RECEPS), University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland;School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland;Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Niuvanniemi Hospital, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

关键词: Pharmacoepidemiology;    Drug utilization;    Modeling;    Prescription register;   

Others  :  1125644
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-7-796

 received in 2014-01-30, accepted in 2014-09-26,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Electronic prescription registers provide a vast data source for pharmacoepidemiological research. Prescriptions as such are not suitable for all research purposes; e.g., studying concurrent use of different drugs or adverse drug events during current use. For those purposes, data on dispensed prescriptions needs to be transformed to periods of drug use.

Methods

We used 3,828,292 dispensed prescriptions claimed between 1 January 2002 and 31 December 2009 for 28,093 persons with Alzheimer’s disease. Examples of drug use histories are presented to discuss different aspects that should be noticed when using register-based data consisting of drug purchases.

Results

There is no simple method for correctly transforming dispensed prescriptions to periods of drug use that is usable for all drugs and drug users. Fixed assumptions of daily dose (in defined daily doses, tablets or other units) and fixed time windows should be used with caution and adjusted for different drug use patterns.

Conclusions

We recommend that when transforming prescription drug purchases to drug use periods personal dose, purchasing pattern and other behavioral differences between patients should be taken into account.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Tanskanen et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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