Acquisition cost of dispensed drugs in individuals with multiple medications--A register-based study in Sweden

Bo Hovstadius, Bengt Åstrand, Ulf Persson and Göran Petersson

Health Policy, 2011, vol. 101, issue 2, 153-161

Abstract: Objectives To analyse the acquisition cost of dispensed prescription drugs for individuals with multiple medications in a national population.Methods We collected and analysed individual based data regarding the acquisition cost of dispensed prescription drugs for all individuals with five or more dispensed drugs (DPÂ >=Â 5) in Sweden 2006 (2.2 million).Results Individuals with DPÂ >=Â 5 (24.5% of the population) accounted for 78.8% of the total acquisition cost, and individuals with DPÂ >=Â 10 (8.6% of the population) and DPÂ >=Â 15 (3.0% of the population) accounted for 46.3% and 23.2%, respectively. The average acquisition cost per defined daily doses (DDD) generally decreased with increasing age. The highest average cost per DDD was observed for individuals with DPÂ >=Â 10. The acquisition cost for women with DPÂ >=Â 5 represented 56.0% of the total acquisition cost. Men with DPÂ >=Â 5 represented 44.0% of the total acquisition cost.Conclusions In an entire national population, individuals with multiple medication accounted for four fifths of the total acquisition cost of dispensed drugs. Actions to reduce the number of prescription drugs for the group of patients with a number of different drugs may also result in a substantial reduction of the total acquisition cost.

Keywords: Acquisition; cost; Dispensed; drugs; Multiple; medications; Register (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851011000492
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:hepoli:v:101:y:2011:i:2:p:153-161

Access Statistics for this article

Health Policy is currently edited by Katrien Kesteloot, Mia Defever and Irina Cleemput

More articles in Health Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu () and ().