How many medications do doctors in primary care use? An observational study of the DU90% indicator in primary care in England.

ABSTRACT:

Aim

To apply the drug utilisation 90% (DU90%) indicator (the number of unique drugs which makes up 90% of a doctor's prescribing) to general practitioner (GP) practices prescribing in England to examine time trends, practice-level variation, and relationships with practice characteristics, prescribing costs and low-value prescribing.

Study design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Primary care in England, using publicly available prescribing data available from the National Health Service (NHS) digital platform for 2013-2017.

Participants

All general practices in England (n=7620).

Primary and secondary outcome measures

The DU90% was calculated on an annual basis for each practice based on medication British National Formulary codes. Low-value prescribin

SUBMITTER: Chiedozie C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7929869 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature