ABSTRACT
In present-day drug therapy, the level of therapeutic compliance is a marked professional problem. Its consequences are a challenge for providers of health care and a concern for pharmacists as subjects working in immediate contact with the general public of patients. The present paper reports an evaluation of the level of compliance and analyses its components. It draws attention to the fact that an insufficient level of compliance considerably contributes to the losses in medical care in every therapeutic area. It also discusses pharmaceutical connections of therapeutic compliance as well as pharmaceutical possibilities of increasing its level.
Subject(s)
Patient Compliance/statistics & numerical data , Adult , Aged , Data Collection , Female , Humans , Male , Middle AgedABSTRACT
In Slovakia, similarly as in the Czech Republic, marked changes in the pharmaceutical services have gradually been taking place since 1990. Principal legal and organizational changes have been connected also with the extent and standard of provided pharmaceutical services. The present paper reports the results of a questionnaire research regarding the evaluation of the standard of pharmaceutical services in the year 1995 where there existed both state-owned and private public pharmacies. The questionnaire research was carried out in 20 pharmacies of the Region of West Slovakia, 407 questionnaires were evaluated. The questionnaires were evaluated from the viewpoint of sociological classification of respondents (economically active persons, old-age pensioners) as well as the sex of pharmacy customers. The results confirmed relatively little significant differences between the satisfaction with pharmaceutical services either according to the sex or the social position of the respondents. A relatively significant proportion of the respondents have expressed critical views about the participation of the patient in covering the costs of drugs and slow execution of order of drugs.
Subject(s)
Consumer Behavior , Pharmaceutical Services , Pharmacies , Female , Humans , Male , Slovakia , Socioeconomic FactorsABSTRACT
A randomized pharmacoepidemiological full-year, 7x realized experiment was carried out with the purpose of analyzing the age dependence of drug volumes consumed by the population, using financial and physical measuring units to express per-capita consumption. The experiment was performed for a complete metropolitan population, representing 0.5 million people. Causal age-based dependence of the drug consumption level was found in an analytical form. Subsequently, the optimum regression model describing this dependence was sought by methods of regression and correlation analysis.
Subject(s)
Aging , Drug Utilization/statistics & numerical data , Pharmaceutical Preparations/economics , Age Factors , Humans , Models, Statistical , Pharmacoepidemiology , SlovakiaABSTRACT
Based on the global hypothesis of drug consumption being a function of human age and growing with its increase, an analysis of that dependence was carried out in the preproductive interval of the human lifetime. The experiment included a total metropolitan population of 450,000, involving all outpatient prescriptions of all physicians in the area. The paper shows results obtained over a period of two years. The methodology, based on the expression of drug consumption in numbers of original package and in terms of financial costs, enabled to formulate the course of this dependence and to define its structure. It was found that preproductive age drug consumption shows a characteristically declining trend, progressively descending from a post-natal maximum to local minimums appearing in the 15-19 year (costs), and 20-24 year (number of packages) age groups, respectively; in addition, it shows sex-specific differences and has the analytical shape of a 2nd degree polynomial. After the local minimums the curve begins to ascend according to the characteristic trend in the productive period of the human lifetime.
Subject(s)
Drug Prescriptions/statistics & numerical data , Pharmaceutical Preparations , Adolescent , Adult , Age Factors , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Male , Middle Aged , Regression Analysis , Sex CharacteristicsABSTRACT
The present paper is a contribution to the field of population pharmacoepidemiology and presents an analysis of the effect of the determinant of age on the magnitude of requirements for medicines, particularly with regard to gerontological population. The paper reports both demographic and pharmacoepidemiologic analysis of pharmacotherapy and formulates a trend of development in connection with expected demographic ageing of the Slovak population. The results reported in the paper document the demographic-health background of pharmacotherapy and point to some population connections of it.
Subject(s)
Drug Utilization/statistics & numerical data , Aged , Drug Utilization/trends , Female , Geriatrics , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , SlovakiaABSTRACT
The present paper analyzes the consumption of antibiotics from the viewpoint of the diagnosis, specialization of the prescribing physician, and the age and sex of the out-patients. The analysis concerns the prescription within two months in a pharmacy at a policlinic. The results are presented according to the frequency of diagnosis, polyvalence of the antibiotics and the specialization of the prescribing physician.
Subject(s)
Ambulatory Care , Anti-Bacterial Agents/therapeutic use , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Child , Child, Preschool , Drug Utilization/statistics & numerical data , Female , Humans , Infant , Male , Middle Aged , SlovakiaABSTRACT
The present paper analyzes the formal equivalence of expressing the consumption of medicines in financial and physical units. The study was carried out on a representative sample of population; for the sake of the need of analytical expression also the factor of the age in the consumption of drugs measured per 1 inhabitant was taken into consideration. A highly close relationship between the two specific variables is observed. On this basis the postulate of the validity of equivalence is formulated. The paper points to the stability of this formal equivalence also in the conditions of the action of the seasonal component and the pragmatic significance of the obtained results for pharmaco-epidemiological studies is stressed.
Subject(s)
Drug Utilization , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Child , Child, Preschool , Czechoslovakia , Female , Humans , Infant , Male , Middle Aged , Statistics as Topic/methodsABSTRACT
Based upon the hypothesis on the diverse dependency of drug consumption on the sex of population as its influencing factor, this relationship was closely studied. The dynamics of the dependency of large urban population has been analysed for a period of 4 years. Important differences in the dependency on sex and age have been found. The fine structure of this dependency including the analysis of its stability have been determined. The experiment was based on mathematical analysis methods.
Subject(s)
Drug Utilization , Adolescent , Adult , Age Factors , Female , Germany , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Sex Factors , Urban PopulationABSTRACT
Indicators of demographic and medical statistics display different relationships at the level of drug consumption and from these relationships different potential influences may be derived. The relationship is expressed exactly and because it develops with time its developmental trends are analyzed on a nation-wide scale in the course of 17 years. The period of analysis permits to formulate some conclusions on the stability of this relationship with regard to individual essential factors.
Subject(s)
Drug Utilization , Adolescent , Adult , Age Factors , Ambulatory Care , Child , Child, Preschool , Czechoslovakia , Female , Humans , Infant , Male , Middle Aged , Population , Sex FactorsABSTRACT
The author analyzes indicators of drug consumption at the regional level in the CSSR and the main towns. The analysis covers the period from 1971-1985 and pertains to the following indicators: A. Expenditure on drugs per day of treatment by functional types of health institutions. B. per capita expenditure on drugs and C. expenditure on drugs. From the indicators dynamic time series are elaborated and the analysis is focused on the development in the past. The author presents basic indices, mean coefficients of growth and parameters characterizing the development in a multiple way. Statistical testing of parallelisms between the obtained developmental parameters reveals factors which influence drug consumption in the investigated territories.
Subject(s)
Drug Utilization , Czechoslovakia , Drug Utilization/economics , HumansABSTRACT
The present paper analyzes the consumption of drugs in the out-patient health care for city population in relation to age and sex. An automated information system of processing of medical prescriptions by means of computer technique was used. Drug consumption is expressed in the form of costs. The drug consumption for 1984 in the whole population of a city with more than 400 thousand inhabitants was evaluated. Population was divided into 17 age groups (5 years in each) always separately within sex. The results show that drug consumption calculated per 1 person up to the age of 30 is affected by age only negligibly. In the population over 30, drug consumption is markedly increased with age up to the highest age categories. Mathematical analysis has demonstrated that the relation of drug consumption to age expressed per 1 person is best portrayed by a second-degree parabola.
Subject(s)
Drug Utilization , Adolescent , Adult , Age Factors , Aged , Ambulatory Care , Child , Child, Preschool , Czechoslovakia , Drug Utilization/statistics & numerical data , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Urban PopulationABSTRACT
In general, morbidity is considered the primary factor in the consumption of drugs. The relationship between the treated nosological unit and the consumption of a given drug for its therapy is, however, not unequivocal and this complicates the quantification of the influence of morbidity on the consumption of drugs. This property of drugs is called in the submitted paper polyvalency or ambivalency. The authors maintain that this property of drugs is reflected also in their consumption. To express this relationship the authors use the mediated response on morbidity treated in ambulatory departments. The polyvalency of drugs is related with the subject's behaviour during therapeutic decisions which determine the final consumption of drugs.
Subject(s)
Drug Therapy , Drug Utilization , HumansABSTRACT
Drug consumption, expressed in indicators of departmental statistics is the basis of chronological series the development and trend of which is assessed. On this basis parallelisms of these indicators were followed up in 1971-1985. The method applied was used to formulate differences in drug consumption with regard to regional variations, and differences with regard to the functional type of health facilities. The presented method can be one of the sources for the formulation of hypotheses on factors influencing drug consumption.
