Authors: A Vallano E Montané J M Arnau X Vidal C Pallarés M Coll J R Laporte
Publish Date: 2004/10/16
Volume: 60, Issue: 10, Pages: 725-730
Abstract
Objective To describe the prescribing patterns and their quality in relation to the prescriber’s medical speciality in a defined population Methods The study was done on a random sample of all primary care medical prescriptions made through the social security system during 1 year in Andorra a small European country Number and type of prescribed medicines prescribers’ medical speciality and patients’ age and gender were recorded Medical specialities considered were General Practice Paediatrics Cardiology Pneumology Gynaecology Ophthalmology and Other A set of various quality indicators World Health Organisation WHO/International Network for Rational Use of Drugs INRUD indicators and others was used Results The number of medicines prescribed per encounter varied depending on the prescriber’s medical speciality and patient’s age Cardiologists and pneumologists tended to prescribe more medicines than other medical specialities Patients older than 65 years received more prescriptions than younger adults mostly at the expense of cardiovascular drugs The contribution of the various groups and subgroups of medicines and the scores of various prescribing indicators showed wide variability across the medical specialities Conclusion Prescribing patterns and indicators of prescription quality show wide variability depending on the prescriber’s medical speciality This has important implications for priority setting in information continuous education and research
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