Strategic opportunities for effective optimal prescribing and medication management.

BACKGROUND: Canadians receive over 422 million prescriptions and spend over $26 billion annually on drugs. Yet, we do not systematically capture information on whether the right drugs reach the right people with the intended benefits, while avoiding unintended harm. It is important to identify and understand the effectiveness of approaches used to improve prescribing and medication use. OBJECTIVE: To discuss the medication-use system, identify factors affecting prescribing, and assess effectiveness of interventions. METHODS: A literature review was conducted using electronic databases, federal agencies', provincial health departments', health service delivery organizations' and Canadian health research organizations' websites, the Internet, and some hand searching. Interventions identified were categorized according to the Effective Practice and Organization of Care Group (EPOC) classification, with effectiveness based on the literature. RESULTS: Factors affecting prescribing relate to the patient and society, medication, prescriber, practice environment and organization, available information and other external factors. Interventions reported as generally effective are multi-faceted interventions, academic detailing, and reminders. Interventions reported as sometimes effective are audit and feedback or physician profiling, local opinion leaders, drug utilization review, and local consensus guidelines. Passive dissemination of educational materials is deemed generally ineffective. CONCLUSIONS: No single approach is appropriate for every prescribing problem, health professional prescriber practice or health care setting. Interventions to improve prescribing in community and institutional settings have variable effect sizes. Effectiveness is related to content, delivery mechanisms, intensity, intervention's context, and implementation environment. Even an intervention with a small effect size (< 10%) may yield important changes in drug use when applied on a population basis. Further research and evaluation is needed to determine how or why the interventions work and identify barriers to effective implementation.

Medication persistence rates and factors associated with persistence in patients following stroke: a cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Medication nonadherence can be as high as 50% and results in suboptimal patient outcomes. Stroke patients in particular can benefit from pharmacotherapy for thrombosis, hypertension, and dyslipidemia but are at high risk for medication nonpersistence. METHODS: Patients who were admitted to the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with stroke between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2002 were analyzed. Data collected were pre-stroke function, stroke subtype, stroke severity, patient outcomes, and medication use at discharge, and six and 12 months post discharge. Medication persistence at six and 12 months and the factors associated with nonpersistence at six months were examined using multivariable stepwise logistic regression. RESULTS: At discharge, 420 patients (mean age 68.2 years, 55.7% male) were prescribed an average of 6.4 medications and mean prescription drug cost was $167 monthly. Antihypertensive (91%) and antithrombotic (96%) drug use at discharge were frequent, antilipidemic (73%) and antihyperglycemic (25%) drug use were less common. Self-reported persistence at six and 12 months after stroke was high (> 90%) for all categories. In the multivariable model of medication nonpersistence at six months, people aged 65 to 79 years were less likely to be nonpersistent with antihypertensive medications than people aged 80 years or more (Odds ratio (OR) 0.11, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.03-0.39). Monthly drug costs of < $90 or $90-199.99 were associated with greater nonpersistence, compared to monthly drug costs > or =$200 (OR 6.74, 95% CI 1.32-34.46 for < $90; OR 5.25, 95% CI 1.14-24.25 for $90-199.99). For the antithrombotic drug category, people aged 65 to 79 years were less likely to be nonpersistent than people aged 80 years or more (OR 0.23, 95% CI 0.06-0.81), and people who were disabled before admission were more likely to be nonpersistent than those not disabled (OR 7.01, 95% CI 1.66-29.58). CONCLUSION: Patients reported high medication persistence rates six and 12 months after stroke. Identification of factors associated with nonpersistence (such as older age and prior disability) will help predict which patients are at higher risk for discontinuing their medications.