Evidence map›Paper›PMID 18360545›Full record

ArticleTherapeutics and clinical risk management2005

Differential associations between actual and expected GP practice prescribing rates for statins, ACE inhibitors, and beta-blockers: a cross-sectional study in England.

Paul R Ward, Peter R Noyce, Antony S St Leger

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Article in Therapeutics and clinical risk management, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

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2citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Paul R Ward
Peter R Noyce
Antony S St Leger

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

aimTo explore the relationship between actual and expected general medical practitioner (GP) practice prescribing rates for statins, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, and beta-blockers.

backgroundThere is a growing body of literature highlighting inequities in GP practice prescribing rates for many drug therapies. The equity of prescribing is of central importance in the area of therapeutics since it explores the interface between those patients who should and those who actually do receive a drug therapy.

settingFour primary care trusts (PCTs 1-4) in the North West of England, including 132 GP practices.

methodsActual and expected prescribing rates for statins, beta-blockers, and ACE inhibitors were specifically developed for each GP practice.

resultsThere were no statistically significant correlations between actual and expected prescribing rates in PCT2 and PCT3, although in PCT1 there were statistically significant correlations for statins (0.286, p < 0.05) and ACE inhibitors (0.381, p < 0.01). In PCT4, correlations were moderate to high for beta-blockers (0.693, p < 0.01), and moderate for statins (0.541, p < 0.05) and ACE inhibitors (0.585, p < 0.01). Scatterplots highlighted large variations between individual GP practices (both within and between PCTs) in terms of the relationship between actual and expected prescribing rates.

conclusionThis paper highlights variability between PCTs and GP practices in terms of the relationship between actual and expected prescribing rates. The findings from this paper may further advance the suggestion of inequities in prescribing rates for coronary heart disease (CHD) drugs, and studies such as this may be repeated in different therapeutic areas, healthcare settings, and countries.

Identifiers

PMID18360545
PMCPMC1661602

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