Data about the prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases, as one of the most important categories of epidemiological data, is used for interpreting health status of communities. This study aims to calculate the prevalence of outpatient diseases through the characterization of outpatient prescriptions. The data used in this study is collected from 1412 prescriptions for various ty...

PURPOSE The utilization and refill rates of topical ophthalmic fourth-generation fluoroquinolones among physicians, as well as the associated costs, were studied. METHODS A large data set of retrospective pharmacy prescription claims was obtained from multiple plans, including commercial managed care organizations, Medicaid, and Medicare. The data included the number and cost of all new and r...

OBJECTIVE Physical activity (PA) prescriptions provided by family physicians can promote PA participation among patients, but few physicians regularly write PA prescriptions. The objective of this study was to describe family physicians' experiences of trying to implement written PA prescriptions into their practice. DESIGN Longitudinal qualitative study where participants were interviewed fo...

Prescribing of medicines is one of the most important clinical task that is complex and consists of a mixture of sub-competences such as principles of clinical pharmacology, knowledge, skill, critical judgement among many others. Prescription errors, potentially serious and non-serious, have been reported in the United Kingdom hospitals among both junior and senior doctors. The aim of this stud...

OBJECTIVES To establish the relation between new prescriptions for proton pump inhibitors and recorded upper gastrointestinal morbidity within a large computerised general practitioner database. DESIGN Retrospective survey of morbidity and prescribing data linked to new prescriptions for proton pump inhibitors and comparison with licensed indications between 1991 and 1995. SETTING General P...