ArticlePharmacoepidemiology and drug safety2021
Women are started on a lower daily dose of metoprolol than men irrespective of dose recommendations: A potential source of confounding by contraindication in pharmacoepidemiology.
Article in Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review and pharmacovigilance analysis of the risk of agranulocytosis associated with metamizole use.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- Sex-Based Difference in the Effect of Metoprolol on Heart Rate and Bradycardia in a Population-Based Setting.Journal of personalized medicine · 2022Article
- Women are started on a lower daily dose of metoprolol than men irrespective of dose recommendations: A potential source of confounding by contraindication in pharmacoepidemiology.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeCurrent guidelines have no sex-specific dosage advice for metoprolol. To evaluate whether women and men are prescribed the same dose a cohort analysis was performed in the population-based Rotterdam Study (RS). Results were replicated in the Integrated Primary Care Information (IPCI) database of automated general practice data.
methodsThe mean daily starting doses of metoprolol in both sexes were compared with independent-samples t-tests and a linear regression analysis was used to adjust in the RS for co-variables, notably, cardiovascular comorbidity, migraine, age, SBP, DBP, BMI, socioeconomic status, use of other antihypertensive drugs, smoking, and alcohol. In the IPCI-database, adjustment was for age only.
resultsThe mean daily starting dose was statistically significantly lower in women than in men in both the RS and IPCI database, with a mean difference of 4.8 mg (95%CI -7.8, -1.8) and 4.6 mg (95%CI -5.3,-4.0), respectively. Statistical significance remained after adjustment in both databases.
conclusionsWomen received lower starting doses of metoprolol than men in two independent data collections despite non-sex specific cardiovascular guideline recommendations. This example of real-life pharmacotherapy can lead to a form of confounding by contraindication in pharmacoepidemiology.
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