Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on community medication dispensing: a national cohort analysis in Wales, UK.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Population-level information on dispensed medication provides insight on the distribution of treated morbidities, particularly if linked to other population-scale data at an individual-level.

Objective

To evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on dispensing patterns of medications.

Methods

Retrospective observational study using population-scale, individual-level dispensing records in Wales, UK. Total dispensed drug items for the population between 1 ^st January 2016 and 31 ^st December 2019 (3-years, pre-COVID-19) were compared to 2020 with follow up until 27 ^th July 2021 (COVID-19 period). We compared trends across all years and British National Formulary (BNF) chapters and highlighted the trends in three major

SUBMITTER: Torabi F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9135049 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature