Drug utilization studies and people. A Swedish perspective

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology
• Health Services Research
• Public Health

Background:

• Effective drug therapy quality necessitates innovative collaboration among healthcare stakeholders.
• Sweden possesses robust data on drug sales and prescribing, facilitating drug utilization studies.
• Existing data enables comparisons across different geographical and administrative levels.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the need for enhanced collaboration in drug therapy.
• To describe available drug utilization data resources in Sweden.
• To identify areas for improvement in drug utilization research.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of national drug sales and prescribing data.
• Utilizing the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification system and Defined Daily Dose (DDD) metrics.
• Descriptive analysis of variations in drug use across different regions and healthcare centers.

Main Results:

• Significant variations in drug prescribing patterns were observed between countries, counties, and health centers in Sweden.
• The underlying reasons for these observed differences in drug utilization remain largely unknown.
• Current drug utilization studies require stronger integration with primary healthcare settings.

Conclusions:

• Drug utilization studies must evolve beyond descriptive analysis to include intervention and a patient-prescriber perspective (PPP).
• Establishing stronger links between clinical pharmacology and primary care is crucial for advancing drug utilization research.
• Developing systems for prescriber self-audit and multidisciplinary approaches are essential for contextualizing drug use.