Assessment of the Prescriber's and the Pharmacies Overview of Patient Medication by Use of the Fidelity Coefficient.

The purpose of this study is to twofold. The investigators wish to introduce a new patient-descriptive parameter, the 'Fidelity Coefficient', and use it to assess and compare the overview of patient's medication possessed by the general practitioners and the pharmacies.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Misuse of Prescription Only Drugs

Detailed Description

The fidelity coefficient, FC, is a measure of what proportion of individual patients' medication that are accounted for by the most used prescriber and the most used pharmacy. Each patient therefore has two values, one describing his fidelity towards his most used prescriber, FCPresc, and one describing his fidelity towards his most used pharmacy, FCPharm.

The investigators intend to assess this parameter in an observational population scale database study, using standard descriptive statistics, and subsequently compare the obtained average FCPresc and FCPharm.

Furthermore, the investigators will analyze the two obtained FCs for dependency of a predefined list of variables: age, gender, number of prescriptions, whether the most frequent prescriber was a GP and whether the most used pharmacy was urban.

Finally, the investigators intend to analyze which medications (grouped using the ATC-system with 4 digits, e.g. C07A) that has the highest proportion of prescriptions that were either issued by a non-main prescriber or redeemed at a non-main pharmacy, which roughly translates into the most 'infidel' medications. To insure relevance we intend to use a cut-off-value of the medication being prescribed at least 50.000 times, which equals about 85 % of the data according to preceding analyses.

The data for this study will be obtained from the Odense University Pharmacoepidemiological Database (OPED). In brief, it is a research database with full coverage of all reimbursed prescriptions in the Region of Southern Denmark (1.2 million inhabitants). The data included in each prescription record includes the prescription holder, the prescriber, the pharmacy, the date of dispensing and a full account of the dispensed product, including substance, brand name, route of administration, ATC-code and Defined Daily Dose (DDD).

Some drugs are exempt from re-imbursement and thus not covered by the database, including benzodiazepines, oral contraceptives, laxatives and certain antibiotics.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 283388

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Denmark
  • Funen
    • Odense, Funen, Denmark, 5000
      • Research Unit of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Southern Denmark

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

Residents of Region of Southern Denmark during 2009.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Having filed more than 9 prescriptions during 2009.

Exclusion Criteria:

• None

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
RSD-citizens; Residents of Southern Denmark, who filed more than 9 prescriptions during 2009.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
FC(Pharm)	The pharmacy fidelity coefficient, FC(Pharm), is a measure of what proportion of individual patients' medication that are accounted for by the most used pharmacy.	cross-sectional study with data aquisition over one year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Southern Denmark
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jesper Hallas, MD, PhD, Professor, Research Unit of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Southern Denmark.; Principal Investigator: Anton Pottegard, BSc in Pharm, Guest Researcher, Research Unit of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Southern Denmark.

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Pottegard A, Hallas J. Physicians' and pharmacies' overview of patients' medication. An analysis of fidelity coefficients. Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 2011 Sep;67(9):919-24. doi: 10.1007/s00228-011-1026-3. Epub 2011 Mar 12. Erratum In: Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 2012 Jan;68(1):107.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: June 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 1, 2010
• Study Completion (Actual): August 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 21, 2010
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 21, 2010
• First Posted (Estimate): May 24, 2010

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): February 4, 2013
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 1, 2013
• Last Verified: February 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Prescription, General practitioner, Pharmacy
• Other Study ID Numbers: JH-AP-001