Drug utilization patterns before and during COVID-19 pandemic in Manitoba, Canada: A population-based study.
Journal
PloS one
ISSN: 1932-6203
Titre abrégé: PLoS One
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101285081
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2022
2022
Historique:
received:
09
03
2022
accepted:
08
11
2022
entrez:
28
11
2022
pubmed:
29
11
2022
medline:
1
12
2022
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
The COVID-19 pandemic has led the Canadian provincial governments to take unprecedented measures, including restrictions to healthcare services and pharmacists. Limited evidence exists on changes in prescription trends in Canada during the pandemic period. To examine the trend of prescription medications' utilization before and during COVID-19, among incident and prevalent users in the general population. We examined 18 major classes of medications. We used the administrative health databases from the province of Manitoba, Canada, to conduct a province-wide cross-sectional study. Incident and prevalent use was compared between two time periods; pre-COVID-19: July 2016-March 2020 and during COVID-19: April 2020-March 2021. Interrupted time series analysis using autoregressive models was used to quantify the change in level and slope in quarterly medication use among incident and prevalent users. The quarterly study population ranged from 1,353,485 to 1,411,630 Manitobans. The most common comorbidities were asthma (26.67%), hypertension (20.64%), and diabetes (8.31%). On average, the pandemic restrictions resulted in a 45.55% and 12.17% relative decline in the aggregated utilization of all drugs among both incident and prevalent users, respectively. Subclass analysis showed a 46.83%, 23.05%, and 30.98% relative drop among incident users of antibiotics, cardiovascular drugs and opioids use, respectively. We observed a significant slope increase during COVID-19 among the quarterly cardiovascular, antidiabetics, alpha-1 blockers, and statins incident users compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. We noted a significant decrease in level among NSAIDs, opioids, and antibiotic prevalent users, however, no significant changes in slope were observed. Our findings show a significant impact of COVID-19 measures on prescription trends in the general population. The observed decline among several medication classes was temporary. Further research is needed to monitor prescription trends and better understand if those changes were associated with increased health services and worsened outcomes.
Sections du résumé
BACKGROUND
The COVID-19 pandemic has led the Canadian provincial governments to take unprecedented measures, including restrictions to healthcare services and pharmacists. Limited evidence exists on changes in prescription trends in Canada during the pandemic period.
OBJECTIVES
To examine the trend of prescription medications' utilization before and during COVID-19, among incident and prevalent users in the general population. We examined 18 major classes of medications.
METHODS
We used the administrative health databases from the province of Manitoba, Canada, to conduct a province-wide cross-sectional study. Incident and prevalent use was compared between two time periods; pre-COVID-19: July 2016-March 2020 and during COVID-19: April 2020-March 2021. Interrupted time series analysis using autoregressive models was used to quantify the change in level and slope in quarterly medication use among incident and prevalent users.
RESULTS
The quarterly study population ranged from 1,353,485 to 1,411,630 Manitobans. The most common comorbidities were asthma (26.67%), hypertension (20.64%), and diabetes (8.31%). On average, the pandemic restrictions resulted in a 45.55% and 12.17% relative decline in the aggregated utilization of all drugs among both incident and prevalent users, respectively. Subclass analysis showed a 46.83%, 23.05%, and 30.98% relative drop among incident users of antibiotics, cardiovascular drugs and opioids use, respectively. We observed a significant slope increase during COVID-19 among the quarterly cardiovascular, antidiabetics, alpha-1 blockers, and statins incident users compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. We noted a significant decrease in level among NSAIDs, opioids, and antibiotic prevalent users, however, no significant changes in slope were observed.
CONCLUSION
Our findings show a significant impact of COVID-19 measures on prescription trends in the general population. The observed decline among several medication classes was temporary. Further research is needed to monitor prescription trends and better understand if those changes were associated with increased health services and worsened outcomes.
Identifiants
pubmed: 36441676
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278072
pii: PONE-D-22-07068
pmc: PMC9704650
doi:
Substances chimiques
Analgesics, Opioid
0
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
e0278072Informations de copyright
Copyright: © 2022 Aboulatta et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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