[Pharmaco-epidemiologic indicators for the analysis of drug consumption at the regional level]

The analysis of drug use is often limited to the description of per capita pharmaceutical expenditure. Differences that are observed in the comparison are attributable to the specific age and gender distribution of the compared populations, and to prescriptive behaviors of general practitioners. Aim of this paper is to analyze drug prescription in a local health unit of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. In order to take into account differences in age distribution among health districts we used "weighted" populations. An in depth analysis has been carried out on antihypertensive drugs to evaluate differences in GPs' prescriptive behavior. Both the differences among districts in the level of drug use, and variability observed in antihypertensive use in the population, suggest that drug prescription might be partly inappropriate.