[AF] Nota Prensa Br J Clin Pharmacol E.L. Mariño

[EDUARDO LUIS MARIÑO HERNANDEZ]

Estimados amigos de la lista de AF:

También creo que  recordareis que no hace mucho tiempo os informe de una 
publicación de un trabajo que hicimos con  sobre el uso de medicamentos en 
Cataluña
con el título de - Identifying how age and gender influence prescription drug 
use in a primary health care environment in Catalonia, Spain.- y que 
justamente se ha publicado este mes en la revista British Journal of Clinical 
Pharmacology.

Se da la circunstancia que la revista decidió hacer difusión a nivel mundial 
de esta publicación y ayer mismo difundió la nota de prensa que os incluyo al 
final de este correo.

De igual forma la Universidad de Barcelona también ha difundido la noticia, 
incluyéndola en su página oficial de Internet en la dirección:

http://www2.ub.edu/comunicacions/cgi/principal.pl?
fitxer=noticies/noticia004435.htm


Ahora ya si me voy  de vacaciones.


Un cordial saludo.

Eduardo L. Mariño
Unidad de  Farmacia Clínica y Farmacoterapia
(http://www.ub.es/farcli/wp0.htm)
Universidad de Barcelona.
______________________________________________________________________

Thursday 13 March 2008


Prescription costs rise more than six times when patients reach 65 says study 
of five million people

Prescribing costs increase dramatically when people reach 65, according to a 
detailed analysis of more than five million patients published in the March 
issue of the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

Average costs were six-and-a-half times higher than for people under 65 and 16 
times higher than for children under four.

When researchers from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Barcelona 
looked at the records of 5.47 million patients in Catalonia, they found that 
just under three-quarters had been prescribed at least one drug and that women 
were 23 per cent more likely to receive a prescription.

But the outstanding finding was the significant cost differences based on the 
ages of the patients. When the researchers looked at the average number of 
drugs that patients were prescribed, people over 75 had almost eight times as 
many prescriptions as children under four years of age.   

And the cost differentials for people over 65 were much higher than 
the four-and-a half times? increase reported by a previous study in 1993.

?This is probably due to a number of factors? explains lead researcher 
Professor Eduardo L Mariño from the Faculty?s Clinical Pharmacy and 
Pharmacotherapy Unit. ?Our population is progressively ageing, we are better 
at detecting problems than 15 years ago and more expensive drugs are being 
developed.?

Being able to predict prescribing costs is very important, he adds, especially 
when there are so many demands and pressures on healthcare budgets. 

?We looked at prescribing by gender, breaking down patients into ten age 
categories and analysing their use of 15 different categories of drugs? he 
says.

?This enabled us to build up a very clear picture of what sort of drugs people 
were taking, depending on their age and gender.?

Other key findings of the study included:      

?       Overall prescribing rates were highest in children under four (85 per 
cent of boys and 81 per cent of girls) and adults over 54. 

?       The only categories not to reach 100 per cent prescribing rates over 
the age of 54 were men aged 55 to 64 (85 per cent) and men who were 85 years 
plus (91 per cent).  

?       The most common prescriptions for children under four were for pain 
killers and fever-reducing drugs, followed by cough suppressants.

?       The authors found a higher use of antibiotics in children under 14 
than reported in other studies and suggested that this could indicate that 
doctors were over prescribing them. 

?       Female patients were prescribed more drugs than men (81 per cent 
compared to 68 per cent), except in children under 15 where the percentage was 
higher in males.

?       Women were more than twice as likely to use antidepressants as men (12 
per cent versus five per cent) and this was most notable in the 35 to 44 age 
group.

?Our study underlines the significantly higher costs of prescribing to older 
patients and this information is vital at a time when we face a progressively 
ageing population? concludes co-author Eladio Fernandez Liz of the Institut 
Catala de la Salut, who analysed the data. ?It also provides a detailed 
breakdown of the drugs most commonly prescribed in ten age groups and by 
gender.

?By combining this information with details of the local patient population, 
our study can help healthcare providers to predict future prescription costs 
and look at specific health interventions in those age groups with the 
heaviest prescription drug use.?  

-ends-

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