Impact of a publicly-funded pharmacare program policy on benzodiazepine dispensing among children and youth: a population-based natural experiment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In January 2018, the Government of Ontario, Canada, initiated a universal pharmacare program (OHIP+) for all individuals aged 24 years and younger. In April 2019, the program was amended to cover only children and youth without private insurance. Because benzodiazepines are commonly prescribed to children and youth despite their potential hazards, we examined whether changes in publicly-funded drug coverage influenced benzodiazepine dispensing trends in this demographic.

Methods

We conducted a population-based natural experiment study of benzodiazepine dispensing to children and youth in Ontario between January 2013 and March 2020. We used interventional autoregressive integrated moving average models to estimate the impact of OHIP + and its subsequent modificatio

SUBMITTER: Antoniou T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10585894 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature