COMPARATIVE PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF ANTIHYPERTENSIVE DRUGS PRESCRIPTION IN OUTPATIENT PRACTICE IN KURSK AND CHISINAU

Aim. To study the structure of medical prescriptions of antihypertensive agents for patients with arterial hypertension (HT) in the outpatient practice of Kursk (Russia) and Chisinau (Republic of Moldova).

Material and methods. The questioning of doctors of medical organizations in Kursk and Chisinau was carried out as a one-stage descriptive study from October 2015 to February 2016. The questionnaires included questions on the pharmacoepidemiological aspects of prescribing antihypertensive drugs. Total number of respondents was 218, of them – 106 (26 cardiologists and 80 therapists) in Kursk and 112 (28 cardiologists and 84 therapists) in Chisinau.

Results. In the real practice for HT treatment doctors in Kursk used more often beta-adrenoblockers (BAB), somewhat less often – angiotensinconverting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, then diuretics. The shares of calcium channels blockers (CCB) and angiotensin II receptors blockers (ARB) were small – 8.8 and 5.2%, respectively. In Chisinau doctors gave preference to ACE inhibitors, then diuretics and BAB. Frequency of CCB prescriptions was almost identical to that of ARA – 13.7 and 13.6%, respectively. The additional antihypertensives, including central action drugs and alpha-adrenoblockers, were used rarely in both Chisinau and Kursk (1.3 and 1.6%, respectively). Doctors of Chisinau, when carrying out combined pharmacotherapy, gave priority to free combinations of antihypertensive drugs (64.4%), fixed combinations were used in 26.7% of cases. In Kursk, the ratio of these specified tactics of combined therapy was 53.5 and 34.1%, respectively. Among the pharmaceutical companies whose medicines were preferred by doctors in Kursk and in Chisinau, the leading positions were taken by KRKA (38.0 and 25.4%, respectively), Gideon Richter (13.5 and 28.7%, respectively) and Berlin-Chemie (26.7 and 15.6%, respectively).

Conclusion. ACE inhibitors, diuretics, BAB were priority classes in the prescribing antihypertensive drugs according to survey of doctors in Kursk and Chisinau. In the conditions of the existing pharmaceutical market of Chisinau doctors used ARB and CCB more often than doctors from Kursk. The main share of doctor’s prescriptions in Kursk and Chisinau, considered both for group of antihypertensive drugs, and for certain representatives of each group of drugs, corresponds to the current recommendations on the pharmacotherapy of patients with HT.