Open AccessUsing suitability profiles to better inform consumers' choice of commonly used over‐the‐counter analgesics
Author(s) -
Clarke Geoffrey D.,
Adams Ian M.,
Dunagan Fiona M.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
international journal of pharmacy practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.42
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 2042-7174
pISSN - 0961-7671
DOI - 10.1211/ijpp.16.5.0009
Subject(s) - medicine , over the counter , audit , aspirin , ibuprofen , population , acetaminophen , emergency medicine , intensive care medicine , anesthesia , medical prescription , pharmacology , environmental health , management , economics
Objective To quantify the impact of labelled contraindications, precautions and warnings for use on the population that may take commonly used over‐the‐counter (OTC) analgesics. Setting Primary care: data were collected from a general practitioner database in Australia. Methods Patient data were audited retrospectively (n = 107553) to determine the number of patients with contraindications, warnings or precautions to the use of OTC paracetamol and the non‐steroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs aspirin and ibuprofen. The primary outcome measure was the suitability rate (i.e. the proportion of patients with no contraindications, warnings or precautions) of these commonly used analgesics. Key findings In this Australian dataset, the proportions of patients who had no contraindications, warnings or precautions to the use of paracetamol or ibuprofen were 98.1 and 76.9%, respectively ( P = 0.0001); 83.4% of patients had no contraindications, warnings or precautions to the use of aspirin ( P = 0.005 compared with paracetamol). Conclusion Of the three OTC analgesics examined, paracetamol is suitable for use by a larger proportion of the general population without the need to seek medical advice.