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Who sees you matters: a population study examining topical corticosteroid prescribing patterns between primary care
Indira Singh1, Vipawee S Chat2, Angeline Uy1
1Department of Dermatology, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Background:
Many patients with atopic dermatitis seek care from both primary care physicians and dermatologists. However, little is known regarding topical corticosteroid prescribing patterns among these specialties.
Objective:
We sought to determine if differences exist in topical corticosteroid prescribing patterns among dermatologists, family medicine physicians, and internal medicine physicians.
Methods:
We conducted a population-based, cross-sectional analysis using data from the U.S. National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey from 2006 to 2016.
Results:
Compared to dermatologists, internal medicine physicians were 22 times less likely to prescribe a topical corticosteroid for atopic dermatitis (52.2% versus 5.1%, p = .001; adjusted OR 0.045, 95%CI 0.007-0.277). There was not a statistically significant difference in the rate of topical corticosteroid prescriptions for atopic dermatitis between family medicine physicians and dermatologists (39.1% vs. 52.2%, p = .27; adjusted OR 0.468, 95%CI 0.174-1.257). Family medicine physicians had a higher rate of prescribing topical corticosteroids for atopic dermatitis than internal medicine physicians (39.1% vs. 5.1%, p = .002).
Limitations:
Severity of atopic dermatitis was not assessed.
Conclusions:
Atopic dermatitis patients seen by internal medicine physicians are much less likely to receive topical corticosteroid prescriptions as compared to those seen by dermatologists.
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