Continuous recording of drug prescribing in Sweden 1974–1983. Methods and examples of utilization of data

Summary

Drug prescribing in Sweden under the National Insurance Act has been continuously recorded since 1974. A random sample of 1 in 288 is drawn from the about 24 million prescriptions issued yearly and the following data are recorded: dispensing pharmacy, type of prescription, year and month of dispensing, year of birth and sex of the patient, trade name, quantity, dosage, and price of the drug.

The numbers of prescriptions of drugs free of charge increased by 32% between 1974 and 1983, while that of price deducted drugs decreased by 7%. The national cost of drugs rose sharply during the period. The per capita cost of drugs to persons aged ≥75 years was more than eight-fold higher than for persons aged ≤14 years. A two-fold difference in the number of prescription items was found between women and men, and there were nine- to tenfold differences between age-groups.

Total prescribing varied modestly over time, as did the prescribing to most patient groups and for most groups of drugs. Exceptions to this were prescribing to children, particularly of antiallergic drugs for which a 50% increase was observed between 1974 and 1975, mainly due to increased prescribing of phenylpropanolamine. The recording of prescriptions as described is useful for early identification of new patterns of drug use and for mapping drug utilization and drug dosages in different age groups. The system is particularly powerful as a complement to other methods for recording drug use in Sweden, e.g. wholesale sales statistics and individual prescription monitoring in the county of Jämtland. Together these systems offer a unique data base for drug utilization studies.