ArticleBMJ open2024
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on prescription drug use and costs in British Columbia: a retrospective interrupted time series study.
Article in BMJ open, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of risk mitigation measures on oral fluoroquinolone prescribing: a multi-site population-based Canadian cohort study.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2026Article
- Trends in Medication Use Among Young Adults and the Covid-19 Pandemic Effect.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2025Article
- Trends in prescription opioid use for pain in Canada: a population-based repeated cross-sectional study of 6 provinces.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2025Article
- Trends in medication use during the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec, Canada.Scientific reports · 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
- Pharmaceutical Utilization Review: A Five-Year Time Trend Analysis of the Pharmaceutical Market in Iran.Iranian journal of pharmaceutical research : IJPRArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on prescription drug use and costs.
designInterrupted time series analysis of comprehensive administrative health data linkages in British Columbia, Canada, from 1 January 2018 to 28 March 2021.
settingRetrospective population-based analysis of all prescription drugs dispensed in community pharmacies and outpatient hospital pharmacies and irrespective of the drug insurance payer.
participantsBetween 4.30 and 4.37 million individuals (52% women) actively registered with the publicly funded medical services plan.
interventionCOVID-19 pandemic and associated mitigation measures.
main outcome measuresWeekly dispensing rates and costs, both overall and stratified by therapeutic groups and pharmacological subgroups, before and after the declaration of the public health emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Relative changes in post-COVID-19 outcomes were expressed as ratios of observed to expected rates.
resultsAfter the onset of the pandemic and subsequent COVID-19 mitigation measures, overall medication dispensing rates dropped by 2.4% (p<0.01), followed by a sustained weekly increase to return to predicted levels by the end of January 2021. We observed abrupt level decreases in antibacterials (30.3%, p<0.01) and antivirals (22.4%, p<0.01) that remained below counterfactuals over the first year of the pandemic. In contrast, there was a week-to-week trend increase in nervous system drugs, yielding an overall increase of 7.3% (p<0.01). No trend changes in the dispensing of respiratory system agents, ACE inhibitors, antidiabetic drugs and antidepressants were detected.
conclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic impact on prescription drug dispensing was heterogeneous across medication subgroups. As data become available, dispensing trends in nervous system agents, antibiotics and antivirals warrant further monitoring and investigation.
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