OBJECTIVE This study augments existing literature by examining characteristics associated with prescription drug utilization and makes an in-depth assessment of family prescription drug economic burden within the United States. The objective of this study was to examine differences in prescription drug use and prescription drug characteristics among elderly and nonelderly families. METHODS A ...

BACKGROUND Measures taken over the past four years in Greece to reduce pharmaceutical expenditure have led to significant price reductions for medicines, but have also changed patient cost-sharing rates for prescription drugs. This study attempts to capture the resulting increase in patients' out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses for prescription drugs during the 2011-2014 period. METHODS The authors ...

OBJECTIVE To assess the impact of the National Essential Medicines Scheme (NEMS) with respect to urban-rural inequalities regarding drug prescriptions in primary care facilities. METHODS A stratified two-stage random sampling strategy was used to sample 23,040 prescriptions from 192 primary care facilities from 2009 to 2010. Difference-in-Difference (DID) analyses were performed to test the a...

The economic impact of the consumption of drugs has become an important issue in the Spanish Budget. In fact, it represented over 23% of the Spanish Health Budget in 2007. In particular, the prescription of anxiolytics (drugs with potential addictive behavior) was 16% of the total pharmaceutical expenditure in Spain in 2007. The reasons that explain the consumption of anxiolytics could be: the ...

Executive summary / 1 Introduction / 7 The particular impact of new or " patented " drugs on government health care costs / 8 The impact of all types of drugs on government health care costs / 18 The real cause of unsustainable growth in government health spending / 25 Research suggests that government health spending in Canada is growing at an unsus-tainable pace [Skinner and Rovere, 2006; 200...

This analysis uses a consistent pan-Canadian dataset--Canadian CompuScript from IMS Health, Canada--to quantify trends in per capita drug expenditures within each Canadian province over the period of 1998 to 2004. The impacts of changes in six potential determinants of drug expenditure are calculated for every province. Each of the six detailed cost drivers falls into one of three broad categor...

The general medical services scheme in Ireland provides free primary health care to low income families and other vulnerable groups. Expenditure on prescription medicine on the scheme is risk-adjusted using a simple age and gender model. This paper extends the number of risk adjusters to include other demographic and socio-economic factors, chronic illness indicators based on the chronic diseas...

Background and aims Optimal nutritional therapy, including the individually adapted provision of energy, is associated with better clinical outcomes. Indirect calorimetry best tool to measure monitor energy expenditure hence optimize prescription. Similarly other medical techniques, indications contra-indications must be acknowledged optimise use indirect in routine. Measurements should repeate...