Assessment of utilization pattern of fixed dose drug combinations in primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare centers in Nepal: a cross-sectional study

Potentially inappropriate prescribing among older adults with hypertension in China: prevalence and related comorbidities across different outpatient settings

Purpose

Potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP) is commonly encountered in older adults; yet, there is limited information on the occurrence of PIP among older adults with hypertension. This study aims to determine and compare the prevalence of PIP and its association with comorbidities in older adult outpatients with hypertension across hospitals and community health centers (CHCs).

Methods

This 3-year (2015-2017) repeated cross-sectional study used electronic medical records from Shenzhen, China, involving 62 hospitals and 678 primary medical institutions. PIP was defined using the 2019 Beers Criteria. Older adults (≥65 years) with hypertension and at least one outpatient prescription were included. Modified Poisson regression analysis was used to assess the association between chronic comorbidities, healthcare settings, and PIP.

Results

The prevalence of PIP in old adult outpatients with hypertension in 2015, 2016, and 2017 was 46.32%, 46.98%, and 46.58% in hospitals, with a sample size of 38,411, 46,235, and 50,495, respectively, and 29.14%, 26.66%, and 29.84% in CHCs, with a sample size of 26,876, 29,434, and 34,775 respectively. The top four most popular PIP in hospitals and CHCs was proton-pump inhibitors (PPIs), diuretics, benzodiazepines, and non-cyclooxygenase-selective non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), respectively. PIP was most associated with chronic gastrointestinal disease (adjusted prevalence ratio = 1.54, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.50-1.59) and mental and behavioral disorders (adjusted prevalence ratio = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.46-1.53) in hospitals and with mental and behavioral disorders (adjusted prevalence ratio = 1.99; 95% CI = 1.95-2.03) and musculoskeletal system and connective tissue disorders (adjusted prevalence ratio = 1.33; 95% CI = 1.31-1.36) in CHCs. The prevalence of PIP was significantly higher in hospital settings than in CHCs (adjusted prevalence ratio = 1.65; 95% CI = 1.63-1.66).

Conclusion

Among older adult outpatients with hypertension in Shenzhen, PIP was more prevalent in hospitals than in CHCs. The comorbidities most strongly associated with PIP were chronic gastrointestinal disease and mental and behavioral disorders in hospitals and mental and behavioral disorders in CHCs. Clinical pharmacy integration needs to be considered to reduce inappropriate prescribing in this vulnerable population.

Morbidity profile and pharmaceutical management of adult outpatients between primary and tertiary care levels in Sri Lanka: a dual-centre, comparative study

BACKGROUND

Outpatient care is central to both primary and tertiary levels in a health system. However, evidence is limited on outpatient differences between these levels, especially in South Asia. This study aimed to describe and compare the morbidity profile (presenting morbidities, comorbidities, multimorbidity) and pharmaceutical management (patterns, indicators) of adult outpatients between a primary and tertiary care outpatient department (OPD) in Sri Lanka.

METHODS

A comparative study was conducted by recruiting 737 adult outpatients visiting a primary care and a tertiary care facility in the Kandy district. A self-administered questionnaire and a data sheet were used to collect outpatient and prescription data. Following standard categorisations, Chi-square tests and Mann‒Whitney U tests were employed for comparisons.

RESULTS

Outpatient cohorts were predominated by females and middle-aged individuals. The median duration of presenting symptoms was higher in tertiary care OPD (10 days, interquartile range: 57) than in primary care (3 days, interquartile range: 12). The most common systemic complaint in primary care OPD was respiratory symptoms (32.4%), whereas it was dermatological symptoms (30.2%) in tertiary care. The self-reported prevalence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) was 37.9% (95% CI: 33.2-42.8) in tertiary care OPD and 33.2% (95% CI: 28.5-38.3) in primary care; individual disease differences were significant only for diabetes (19.7% vs. 12.8%). The multimorbidity in tertiary care OPD was 19.0% (95% CI: 15.3-23.1), while it was 15.9% (95% CI: 12.4-20.0) in primary care. Medicines per encounter at primary care OPD (3.86, 95% CI: 3.73-3.99) was higher than that at tertiary care (3.47, 95% CI: 3.31-3.63). Medicines per encounter were highest for constitutional and respiratory symptoms in both settings. Overall prescribing of corticosteroids (62.7%), vitamin supplements (45.8%), anti-allergic (55.3%) and anti-asthmatic (31.3%) drugs was higher in the primary care OPD, and the two former drugs did not match the morbidity profile. The proportion of antibiotics prescribed did not differ significantly between OPDs. Subgroup analyses of drug categories by morbidity largely followed these overall differences.

CONCLUSIONS

The morbidities between primary and tertiary care OPDs differed in duration and type but not in terms of multimorbidity or most comorbidities. Pharmaceutical management also varied in terms of medicines per encounter and prescribed categories. This evidence supports planning in healthcare and provides directions for future research in primary care.

The prescription pattern of initial treatment for type 2 diabetes in Beijing from 2011 to 2015

The purpose of this study was to describe the prescription pattern of initial treatment for type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in Beijing from 2011 to 2015.We selected 790,339 newly diagnosed outpatients with T2DM from the Beijing Medical Claim Data for Employees database between January 2011 and December 2015. The percentages of different treatments and agents were calculated from the patients' 1st prescriptions. Subgroup analyses were conducted for primary, secondary, and tertiary hospital settings.The initial treatments given to 57.7%, 30.7%, and 11.7% of patients were oral hypoglycemic agent (OHA) monotherapy, OHA polytherapy, and insulin, respectively. Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors (AGIs) (43.0%) were the most commonly used agents for monotherapy, followed by metformin (35.5%) and sulfonylureas (14.9%). AGIs were most commonly used in primary hospitals (52.0%), while metformin was prescribed most often in secondary (37.6%) and tertiary (41.8%) hospitals. From 2011 to 2015, there were increases in the use of AGIs (40.1-41.1%, P < .001) and metformin (34.0-40.4%, P < .001), but a decrease in the use of sulfonylureas (18.1-12.8%, P < .001). Similar trends were seen in the different hospital settings. Metformin plus an AGI, a sulfonylurea plus an AGI, and metformin plus a sulfonylurea were the most common OHA polytherapy combinations. The use of metformin plus an AGI increased from 13.8% in 2011 to 19.7% in 2015 (P < .001), while the use of a sulfonylurea plus an AGI, and metformin plus a sulfonylurea, did not change significantly.Half of newly diagnosed patients with T2DM received an initial treatment of OHA monotherapy. Although the use of metformin increased from 2011 to 2015, both AGIs and metformin were the most commonly prescribed agents. The patterns differed from those of most other countries and identification of the underlying reasons will require further investigation.