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Usage of the claim database of national health insurance programme for analysis of cisapride‐erythromycin co‐medication in Taiwan
Author(s) -
Gau ChurnShiouh,
Chang IShou,
Lin Wu FeLin,
Yu HuiTzu,
Huang YuWen,
Chi ChengLiang,
Chien SuYu,
Lin KehMing,
Liu MingYing,
Wang HuiPo
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.023
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1099-1557
pISSN - 1053-8569
DOI - 10.1002/pds.1324
Subject(s) - medicine , cisapride , national health insurance , concomitant , medical prescription , pharmacovigilance , national database , database , erythromycin , pharmacoepidemiology , family medicine , pediatrics , emergency medicine , environmental health , adverse effect , pharmacology , population , antibiotics , computer science , microbiology and biotechnology , biology
Purpose This study aimed to use the National Health Insurance Research Database, Taiwan for risk analysis of concomitant use of cisapride and erythromycin. Methods The sample consisted of subjects identified in the Outpatient Sampling Database (OSD) and Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000 (LHID 2000), derived from the original claim data of the National Health Insurance Research Database, Taiwan. Results According to the LHID 2000, a total of 464 individuals experienced 685 episodes of cisapride‐erythromycin co‐medication prescribed by 295 physicians, revealing a prevalence of 4.5% concomitant use, with higher prevalence in clinics (9.2%) than in other medical institutes (3.7–5.4%). Among the co‐medication episodes, 81.9% and 61.2% were prescribed from the same health institutes and by the same physicians, respectively. No medical record of cardiac arrhythmias was found among these patients in 2001 and 2002, probably due to the fact that 78.9% of the 464 individuals were under age 16, 84.0% had short exposure duration (1–4 days) and 98.0% of the episodes were prescribed with a cisapride dose of less than 0.8 mg/kg/day. Conclusions Findings from this study suggest that there exists an urgent need for accreditation in terms of pharmacovigilance of clinical sites and their practicing physicians for the prevention of irrational concomitant prescription in Taiwan. Our findings also indicate that it is necessary to investigate other possible conditions of potentially dangerous co‐medication in Taiwan and other developing countries. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.