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Dispensing Patterns of Prescription Medicines Among Older Australians From 2013-2023
Hui Wen Quek1, Kenneth Lee1, Christopher Etherton-Beer2
1Centre for Optimisation of Medicines, School of Health and Clinical Science, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
Objectives:
To characterize annual trends in prescription medicine dispensing patterns among Australians aged ≥65 years from 2013-2023.
Design:
Population-based retrospective descriptive study.
Setting And Participants:
A 10% sample of the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) dataset covering medicines dispensed between 2013 and 2023. All individuals aged ≥65 years with at least 1 dispensing during a calendar year were included.
Methods:
The PBS 10% sample was analyzed to determine the number of prescribers, prescriber visits, and pharmacy visits resulting in PBS medicines being dispensed. Prescribers were categorized as general practitioners (GPs), non-GP specialists, other medical practitioners (primary and secondary/tertiary care), unclassified nonspecialists, nonmedical practitioners, and unknown.
Results:
Between 2013 (n = 3,159,050) and 2023 (n = 4,419,130), annual PBS dispensing per person decreased from a median of 34 [interquartile range (IQR), 17-57] to 31 (IQR, 15-53). Correspondingly, yearly pharmacy visits for PBS medicines declined slightly, from 17 (IQR, 12-27) to 16 (IQR, 10-24). Median prescriber visits resulting in PBS prescriptions decreased from 6 (IQR, 3-11) in 2013 to 5 (IQR, 3-9) in 2023. From 2013 to 2023, median GP visits resulting in a PBS prescription declined from 5 (IQR, 2-8) to 0 (IQR, 0-1), whereas visits to unclassified nonspecialist providers increased from 0 (IQR, 0-0) to 3 (IQR, 1-5). Visits to other prescriber subtypes resulting in PBS prescriptions remained relatively stable, whereas nonmedical prescribing demonstrated steady growth throughout the observation period.
Conclusions And Implications:
Prescription medicine dispensing among older individuals declined over the observation period, with GP prescriptions being increasingly replaced by those from unclassified nonspecialist providers. Changes in health care service delivery and workforce landscape over the last few years likely influenced this trend. Further research is needed to explore the impact of these shifts on health expenditures to inform resource allocation strategies.
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