[Description of oral glucocorticoid prescriptions in general population]

Very little is known about oral glucocorticoids (GCs) prescriptions in general population.

Data of UK adult patients registered between January 1989 and December 2008 with general practices contributing to The Health Improvement Network (THIN) database were analyzed. We identified all patients aged 18 years and older who received at least one oral GCs prescription. Short-term treatments (i.e., <3 months) were differentiated from long term (i.e., ≥3 months) ones. Demographical data of patients being prescribed such treatments and reason for prescriptions over the 20 years were described. The annual prevalence of GCs prescriptions was assessed.

The study population consisted of 4,518,753 adult patients (26,035,154 person-years of follow-up). Overall, 810,009 oral GCs treatments (220,195,154 person-years of follow-up) were prescribed in 384,897 patients. Over the 20 years, the mean prevalence of oral GCs prescriptions was 0.85% [0.84-0.85], increasing from 0.65% [0.57-0.74] in 1989 to 0.91% [0.90-0.93] in 2008. Short-term therapies (median duration of prescription: 9 days [6-10], median cumulative prednisone equivalent (PE) dosage: 210 mg [150-420]) represented 79.3% of treatments and 11.9% of prevalence whereas it was the opposite for long term prescriptions (median duration of prescription: 215 days [126-490], median cumulative PE dosage: 2000 mg [950-4310]). Women were more prescribed GCs. Median age at first GCs prescription was 56.1 years [39.4-70.4] and 67.4 years [54.0-76.8] for short-term and long-term therapies, respectively. Reasons for prescription were mainly pulmonary diseases.

About 1% of the UK general population receives GCs therapy in any point of time. This prevalence has constantly increased over the last 20 years.