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A COMMUNITY PHARMACY‐BASED SURVEY OF ANTIHYPERTENSIVE AND ANTIDIABETIC DRUG DOSAGES IN NORTHERN IRELAND
Author(s) -
Griffiths K.,
McDevitt D. G.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of clinical pharmacy and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.622
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2710
pISSN - 0269-4727
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2710.1983.tb01040.x
Subject(s) - medicine , pharmacy , defined daily dose , dose , medical prescription , antihypertensive drug , northern ireland , drug , population , pharmacology , family medicine , environmental health , blood pressure , ethnology , history
SUMMARY International drug utilization data comparisons for antihypertensive and anti‐diabetic agents based on standard daily dosage units, Defined Daily Doses (DDD), show that less of these drugs are prescribed per head of population in Northern Ireland than in Norway or Sweden. A study was designed to investigate whether actual prescribing practices in Northern Ireland might account for some of these apparent differences by comparing the average prescribed daily dose, (PDD) with the DDD for antihypertensive and antidiabetic drugs. Daily dosage information was collected on the antihypertensive and antidiabetic drugs dispensed at 47 Northern Ireland pharmacies during the month of October 1981. A high proportion (73%) of the community pharmacies randomly chosen to take part in the survey were able to record daily dosage instructions. Thirty per cent of the prescriptions monitored were ‘as directed’, but in over one‐third (42%) of these cases, pharmacy staff ascertained how the drug was to be taken by questioning the recipient. For each antihypertensive and antidiabetic drug, the average prescribed daily dose (PDD) was calculated from the aggregated data. In general, the Northern Ireland PDDs were close to the Defined Daily Dose (DDD) units of international comparisons assigned to each drug. Most beta‐blocking agents and other hypotensives had average prescribed daily doses that were only slightly lower than the DDDs assigned. The PDDs of all hypoglycaemic agents and insulin were marginally less than the corresponding DDDs. These results indicate that the apparent low prescribing of these drugs in Northern Ireland is not due to marked differences between assumed and actual prescribing practices.