Prevalence of anti-ulcer drug use in a Chinese cohort

To estimate the age-specific prevalence of anti-ulcer drug use and to calculate the usage of different anti-ulcer drugs over 5 years within the universal health insurance program in Taiwan area.

The National Health Insurance Research Database in Taipei supplied the cohort data sets of 200 000 people. The ambulatory and inpatient claims of the cohort from 1997 to 2001 were analyzed. The anti-ulcer drugs included all drug items of the group A02B (drugs for treatment of peptic ulcer) in the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification system (version 2000). The amount of drug usage was measured in unit of defined daily dose.

Among the totally 13 034 393 visits with 56 672 631 ambulatory prescription items, there were 398 150 (0.7 %) prescribed items of anti-ulcer drugs in 378 855 (2.9 %) visits. Among the 107 649 admissions with 5 762 312 inpatient prescription items, there were 24 598 (0.4 %) prescribed items of anti-ulcer drugs in 11 548 (10.7 %) admissions. The annual prevalence of anti-ulcer drug use was 9.6 % in 1997, 11.6 % in 1998, 15.4 % in 1999, 14.5 % in 2000, and 15.9 % in 2001 respectively. The 5-year prevalence was 36.1 %. The age-specific prevalence among the people younger than 20 years was 9.2 % in 2001 and 23.7 % during the 5-year period. Cimetidine not only was the most popular ingredient among anti-ulcer drugs (57 634 cimetidine users in 70 729 all anti-ulcer drug users during the 5-year period) but also had the largest prescribed amount (42.3 % of DDDs for all anti-ulcer drug users during the 5-year period). The annually prescribed amount of anti-ulcer drugs had grown from 4.9 DDDs/1000 inhabitants/day in 1997 to 7.5 in 2001. This increase was largely attributed to H2-receptor antagonists and the expanding number of users.

Prescribing of anti-ulcer drugs is indeed popular among the Chinese population in Taiwan area. The disproportionate use of anti-ulcer drugs by children demands further investigation.