Are all drugs that prescribed taken?
Section: Cover story
How to quote
Ledo García MJ, Vallés Fernández R, Lecha Areny R, Olivares Correas I, Muñoz Frías M, Bosch Bella JL et al. ¿Se consumen todos los medicamentos que se prescriben?. Metas de Enferm sep 2006; 9(7): 28-32
Authors
1Mª José Ledo García, 2Mónica Muñoz Frías, 3Roser Vallés Fernández, 1Joan Lluis Bosch Bella, 1Rosa Lecha Areny, 4Amadeo Díaz Prats, 4Ignacio Olivares Correas
Position
1Diplomada en Enfermería. Centro de Atención Primaria (CAP) Serraparera, Institut Catalá de la Salut, Barcelona. 2Licenciada en Pedagogía. CAP Sarraparera, Institut Català de la Salut.3Doctora en Farmacia. CAP Sarraparera, Institut Catalá de la Salut.4Especialista en Medicina Familiar y Comunitaria. CAP Sarraparera, Institut Català de la Salut.
Contact address
Centro de Atención Primaria Serraparera. C/Diagonal, s/n. 08290 Cerdanyola del Vallés. Barcelona.
Contact email: mjledo1@hotmail.com
Abstract
Objective: to evaluate the amount and economic impact that disregarded and non consumed drugs represent in a primary care centre during a period of one year.
Material and method: cross-sectional descriptive study of drugs disregarded by the users during one year into the recycling container of the Serraparera primary care centre (Cerdanyola del Vallés). Information was obtained on the number of packages, type of medication, price and indication for the medication.
Results: the total number of disregarded boxes without use was 5.228 units with a total overall cost of 67,471.64 euros (11.226.336 pesetas). Within this medication, the most important ones with a cost above 6.000 euros were high blood pressure medications, drugs for the treatment of respiratory diseases and antidepressants. Lower costs were observed in the other groups such as stomach mucosa protectors, hypolipemiants, antidiabetics, hormones, antibiotics, drugs used in cardiovascular disorders, anti-inflammatory agents and pain killers.
Conclusions: the results yielded by this study show the importance of the economic cost that drugs disregarded by the users without consumption represent. Extrapolation of these results to a larger health area shows the real magnitude of the expense that such practice entails. Because of this, an improvement in the policy for the prescribing of drugs as well as an adequate control of pharmacological treatments appears to be necessary measures.
Keywords:
drugs; health expense; prescription; Primary Carepharmacology
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