ArticlePloS one2022
Drug utilization patterns before and during COVID-19 pandemic in Manitoba, Canada: A population-based study.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 20 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trends in Antithrombotic Therapy Initiation Among Patients With Stroke Pre- and Post-COVID-19 in Sweden-An Interrupted Time Series Study.Basic & clinical pharmacology & toxicology · 2026Article
- Trends and inequalities in statin use for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease between 2009 and 2021 in England: a series of cross-sectional and cohort studies.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Trends in Medication Use Among Young Adults and the Covid-19 Pandemic Effect.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2025Article
- Trends in medication use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec, Canada.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Evaluating the utilisation patterns of pharmacological therapy in COVID-19 patients: an ecological study in Italy.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Adherence to Most Costly Chronic Disease Medications in British Columbia, Canada: A Population-Based Interrupted Time Series Analysis.Patient preference and adherence · 2025Article
- The Use of Psychotropic Medications Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Associated Factors.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Opioid prescribing in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 pandemic: a national register-based study.BMJ open · 2024Article
- Impact of COVID-19 on patterns of drug utilization: A case study at national hospital.PloS one · 2024Article
- Trends in medicine utilisation in public and private healthcare facilities before and during COVID-19: a nationwide analysis of medicine procurement and sales data, 2018-2022.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2024Article
- Trends of drug expenditure in Taiwan National Health Insurance before and during COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- Community Use of Repurposed Drugs Before and During COVID-19 Pandemic in the Netherlands: An Interrupted Time-Series Analysis.Clinical epidemiology · 2023Article
- Prescription trends of antiseizure medications before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in neurology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has led the Canadian provincial governments to take unprecedented measures, including restrictions to healthcare services and pharmacists. Limited evidence exists on changes in prescription trends in Canada during the pandemic period.
objectivesTo examine the trend of prescription medications' utilization before and during COVID-19, among incident and prevalent users in the general population. We examined 18 major classes of medications.
methodsWe used the administrative health databases from the province of Manitoba, Canada, to conduct a province-wide cross-sectional study. Incident and prevalent use was compared between two time periods; pre-COVID-19: July 2016-March 2020 and during COVID-19: April 2020-March 2021. Interrupted time series analysis using autoregressive models was used to quantify the change in level and slope in quarterly medication use among incident and prevalent users.
resultsThe quarterly study population ranged from 1,353,485 to 1,411,630 Manitobans. The most common comorbidities were asthma (26.67%), hypertension (20.64%), and diabetes (8.31%). On average, the pandemic restrictions resulted in a 45.55% and 12.17% relative decline in the aggregated utilization of all drugs among both incident and prevalent users, respectively. Subclass analysis showed a 46.83%, 23.05%, and 30.98% relative drop among incident users of antibiotics, cardiovascular drugs and opioids use, respectively. We observed a significant slope increase during COVID-19 among the quarterly cardiovascular, antidiabetics, alpha-1 blockers, and statins incident users compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. We noted a significant decrease in level among NSAIDs, opioids, and antibiotic prevalent users, however, no significant changes in slope were observed.
conclusionOur findings show a significant impact of COVID-19 measures on prescription trends in the general population. The observed decline among several medication classes was temporary. Further research is needed to monitor prescription trends and better understand if those changes were associated with increased health services and worsened outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.