Klin Farmakol Farm. 2010;24(2):66-70

Importance of Drug Utilization Studies in Pharmacoepidemiology on Examples of Longitudinal Studies

Eva Tlustá1, Jiří Vlček1,2,3, Andrea Kučerová-Lamková1, Lenka Buriánková1, Zdeněk Vitásek4

1Katedra sociální a klinické farmacie, Farmaceutická fakulta v Hradci Králové

22. interní klinika Fakultní nemocnice v Hradci Králové

3Národní reprezentant ESAC

4Zaměstnanecká pojišťovna Škoda

of Proton Pump Inhibitors, Antibiotics and Metformin

Drug utilization studies serve as a tool for estimation of drug exposure in population as well as for evaluation of the influence of regulatory

interventions, marketing strategies and guidelines on the drug on the market. For drug utilization studies the ATC/DDD methodology is

widely used and recommended by the WHO. In our study the database of the SUKL (period 1993–2008) and health insurance company

(2006–2007) was used, and consumption of proton pump inhibitors (PPI), antibiotics and metformin was assessed. Drug utilization was

expressed as the number of defined daily doses (DDD) per 1000 individuals per day (DID).The rapid increase in utilization of PPI was demonstrated

with omeprazole as the most frequently used PPI. Also consumption of metformin increased more than twice in the period

from 2001 to 2008. In the group of antibiotics penicillines were still the most frequently prescribed, mainly amoxicillin in combination

with clavulanic acid. In the year 2008 the combined amoxicillin accounted for 51 % of utilization of all penicillines. The consumption of

macrolides was increasing, the increase represented mainly by clarithromycin, to a lesser extent by azithromycin.

Keywords: drug utilization, ATC/DDD methodology, proton pump inhibitors, antibiotics, metformin

Published: July 1, 2010  Show citation